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Discovery of water vapour around IRC+10216 as evidence for comets orbiting another star

Nature volume 412, pages 160–163 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

Since 1995, planets with masses comparable to that of Jupiter have been discovered around approximately 60 stars1. These planets have not been seen directly, but their presence has been inferred from the small reflex motions that they gravitationally induce on the star they orbit; these motions result in small periodic wavelength shifts in the stellar spectrum. The presence of analogues of the smaller bodies in our Solar System cannot, however, be determined using this technique, because the induced reflex motions are too small—so an alternative approach is needed. Here we report the observation of circumstellar water vapour around the ageing carbon star IRC+10216; water is not expected in measurable quantities around such a star. The only plausible explanation for this water is that the recent evolution of IRC+10216, which has been accompanied by a prodigious increase in its luminosity, is causing the vaporization of a collection of orbiting icy bodies—a process considered in an earlier theoretical study2.

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Figure 1: The spectrum of the 110–101 transition of ortho-H216O obtained from IRC+10216.
Figure 2: Schematic drawing of the evolution of IRC+10216.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. Glassgold for help and insights, and T. Millar and E. Herbst for communicating unpublished results from their chemical model of IRC+10216. This work was supported by NASA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, 02138, Massachusetts, USA

    Gary J. Melnick & Matthew L. N. Ashby

  2. Department of Physics & Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, 21218, Maryland, USA

    David A. Neufeld & K. E. Saavik Ford

  3. NASA/Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, 94035, California, USA

    David J. Hollenbach

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  1. Gary J. Melnick
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  2. David A. Neufeld
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  4. David J. Hollenbach
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  5. Matthew L. N. Ashby
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Correspondence to Gary J. Melnick.

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Melnick, G., Neufeld, D., Ford, K. et al. Discovery of water vapour around IRC+10216 as evidence for comets orbiting another star. Nature 412, 160–163 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35084024

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