ESA’s Herschel space observatory has found evidence of water vapour emanating from ice on dust grains in the disc around a young star, revealing a hidden ice reservoir the size of thousands of oceans.

TW Hydrae, a star between 5-10 million years old, and only 176 light-years away, is in the final stage of formation, and is surrounded by a disc of dust and gas that may condense to form a complete set of planets.

It is believed that a large proportion of Earth’s water may have come from ice-laden comets that bombarded our world during and after its formation. Recent studies of comet 103P/Hartley 2 with Herschel shed new light on how water may have come to Earth, with its findings of the first Earth-like water in a comet. Until now, however, almost nothing was known about reservoirs in planet-forming discs around other stars.

This new detection is the first of its kind and has been made possible by Herschel’s HIFI instrument.

The tell-tale water vapour signature, believed to be produced when the ice coated dust grains are warmed by interstellar UV radiation, has been detected throughout the disc around TW Hydrae, and, though weaker than expected, it hints at a substantial reservoir of ice. This could be a rich source of water for any planets that form around this young star.

"The detection of water sticking to dust grains throughout the disc would be similar to events in our own Solar System's evolution, where over millions of years, similar dust grains then coalesced to form comets," says Michiel Hogerheijde of Leiden University in the Netherlands, who led the study.

"These comets we believe became a contributing source of water for the planets."