Water ice detected at the surface of a distant star's disk

(Phys.org)—A team of Japanese astronomers has recently discovered water ice at the surface of a distant star's disk. Using the Near-Infrared Coronagraphic Imager (NICI) installed on the Gemini South Telescope in Chile, the researchers, led by Mitsuhiko Honda at the Kurume University School of Medicine's Department of Physics, found that a circumstellar disk around the star HD 100546 contains water ice grains. The findings are reported in a paper published online on Mar. 31 in the arXiv repository.