Jump to content

NASA Stennis Helps Family Build a Generational Legacy


Recommended Posts

  • Publishers
Posted
a generational legacy; two men stand at the base of a test stand
Lee English Jr., left, and his son, Noah, follow in the footsteps of the late Lee English Sr. by working at NASA’s Stennis Space Center. English Sr., an engineer working for the Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell International Corporation in the 1970s, is credited with conducting the first seven engine tests for NASA’s new Space Shuttle Program, paving the way for RS-25 engine testing at NASA Stennis. The RS-25 engine, manufactured by Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3 Harris Technologies company, is an evolved version of the space shuttle main engine.
NASA/Danny Nowlin

For Lee English Jr., the sound of a ringing phone probably sounds a lot like the roar of a rocket engine test at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.

During the 1970s, when 9-year-old English Jr. picked up the ringing phone, someone from the south Mississippi test site might say, “Tell your dad we just dropped LOX.”

The caller was referring to the liquid oxygen propellant used to help fuel a new space shuttle engine undergoing developmental testing at NASA Stennis.

To the English family, NASA Stennis stands alongside cherished family heirlooms. It is a treasured place where one generation helped lead the way for ensuing ones to find career success. Both English Jr. and his son, Noah, have followed in Lee English Sr.’s footsteps to work at NASA Stennis.

black and white photo captures the first static test-firing of the space shuttle main engine; a small crowd is seen observing the test from afar
Eleven months after the Mississippi Test Operations became the National Space Technology Laboratories, the first static test-firing of the space shuttle main engine test on the A-1 Test Stand is conducted on May 19, 1975.
NASA

English Sr., an engineer working for the Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell International Corporation in the 1970s, moved his family to Mississippi from California when work was just beginning on how to test engines for NASA’s new Space Shuttle Program.

He is remembered as a “key guy” who helped develop the testing blueprints. He had to be available for consultation at a moment’s notice since testing could happen at all hours, including at night. He also is credited with conducting the first seven space shuttle main engine tests at the Fred Haise Test Stand (formerly A-1 Test Stand).

mixed crowd of people pose at the base of A-1 Test Stand
An image from 1975 shows the original space shuttle main engine test team standing at the base of the A-1 Test Stand, now known as the Fred Haise Test Stand. Lee English Sr., front right, is pictured holding a white hard hat.
NASA

“Every time we do something new, you don’t know what you don’t know,” said Maury Vander, chief of the NASA Stennis Test Operations Division. “These teams were taking the first steps toward getting an engine ready that was required to make the shuttle successful.”

Initial hot fires were one second or less. “There was a lot to learn,” Vander said. “The new engine was extremely complicated, taking about 20 tests to achieve a duration of two seconds, then reaching a duration of 10 seconds on test number 42.”

Now, a team of operators from NASA; Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3 Harris Technologies company; and Syncom Space Services (S3) routinely test RS-25 engines for 500 seconds. The evolved version of the space shuttle main engine, manufactured by Aerojet Rocketdyne, helps power NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket for Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond.

From answering the telephone to answering the call to continue a legacy, English Jr., now 60, has worked in various roles for over three decades at NASA Stennis. As an instrumentation technician for S3, he now helps collect and process engine performance data during hot fires.

“There’s a sense of pride when you see something you feel like your family has worked towards for lots and lots of years,” English Jr. said. “At the time, I’m sure when my dad and the team were doing their work, they never thought we would be using those same engines to try to go to Mars or even back to the Moon.”

As English Jr. helps collect data on engine performance, his son, Noah, 28, works with S3 as a senior mechanical technician to support propellant transfer for engine testing.

“This place is special and not only for my family,” Noah said. “This place is special for Mississippi. The jobs and opportunity here are a big part of Mississippi. It would be amazing in the future to have a child who works out here and have the legacy continue.”

English Sr.’s last visit to NASA Stennis came more than seven years ago. He passed away in 2019 at the age of 88. “He was amazed at how efficient things had gotten over the years,” English Jr. recalled. The assessment is a tribute, not only to the groundbreaking work of the original test team but to countless others – like his son and grandson – who have followed and who work daily to ensure NASA Stennis is better than they found it for the benefit of all.

Share

Details

Last Updated
May 29, 2024
Editor
NASA Stennis Communications
Contact
C. Lacy Thompson
Location
Stennis Space Center

View the full article

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Similar Topics

    • By NASA
      3 min read
      Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
      Getty Images NASA has selected two more university student teams to help address real-world aviation challenges, through projects aimed at using drones for hurricane relief and improved protection of air traffic systems from cyber threats. 
      The research awards were made through NASA’s University Student Research Challenge (USRC), which provides student-led teams with opportunities to contribute their novel ideas to advance NASA’s Aeronautics research priorities.   
      As part of USRC, students participate in real-world aspects of innovative aeronautics research both in and out of the laboratory.  
      “USRC continues to be a way for students to push the boundary on exploring the possibilities of tomorrow’s aviation industry.” said Steven Holz, who manages the USRC award process. “For some, this is their first opportunity to engage with NASA. For others, they may be taking their ideas from our Gateways to Blue Skies competition and bringing them closer to reality.” 
      In the case of one of the new awardees, North Carolina State University in Raleigh applied for their USRC award after refining a concept that made them a finalist in NASA’s 2024 Gateways to Blue Skies competition.  
      Each team of students selected for a USRC award receives a NASA grant up to $80,000 and is tasked with raising additional funds through student-led crowdfunding. This process helps students develop skills in entrepreneurship and public communication. 
      The new university teams and research topics are: 
      North Carolina State University in Raleigh 
      “Reconnaissance and Emergency Aircraft for Critical Hurricane Relief” will develop and deploy advanced Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) designed to locate, communicate with, and deliver critical supplies to stranded individuals in the wake of natural disasters. 
      The team includes Tobias Hullette (team lead), Jose Vizcarrondo, Rishi Ghosh, Caleb Gobel, Lucas Nicol, Ajay Pandya, Paul Randolph, and Hadie Sabbah, with faculty mentor Felix Ewere. 
      Texas A&M University, in College Station 
      “Context-Aware Cybersecurity for UAS Traffic Management” will develop, test, and pursue the implementation of an aviation-context-aware network authentication system for the holistic management of cybersecurity threats to enable future drone traffic control systems.  
      The team includes Vishwam Raval (team lead), Nick Truong, Oscar Leon, Kevin Lei, Garett Haynes, Michael Ades, Sarah Lee, and Aidan Spira, with faculty mentor Sandip Roy. 
      Complete details on USRC awardees and solicitations, such as what to include in a proposal and how to submit it, are available on the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate solicitation page. 
      About the Author
      John Gould
      Aeronautics Research Mission DirectorateJohn Gould is a member of NASA Aeronautics' Strategic Communications team at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. He is dedicated to public service and NASA’s leading role in scientific exploration. Prior to working for NASA Aeronautics, he was a spaceflight historian and writer, having a lifelong passion for space and aviation.
      Facebook logo @NASA@NASAaero@NASA_es @NASA@NASAaero@NASA_es Instagram logo @NASA@NASAaero@NASA_es Linkedin logo @NASA Explore More
      9 min read ARMD Research Solicitations (Updated May 1)
      Article 2 weeks ago 4 min read Air Force Pilot, SkillBridge Fellow Helps NASA Research Soar
      Article 3 weeks ago 2 min read NASA, Boeing, Consider New Thin-Wing Aircraft Research Focus
      Article 3 weeks ago Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
      Missions
      Artemis
      Aeronautics STEM
      Explore NASA’s History
      Share
      Details
      Last Updated May 15, 2025 EditorJim BankeContactSteven Holzsteven.m.holz@nasa.gov Related Terms
      University Student Research Challenge Aeronautics Flight Innovation Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Program University Innovation View the full article
    • By NASA
      6 min read
      Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
      Sunlight reflects off the ocean surface near Norfolk, Virginia, in this 1991 space shuttle image, highlighting swirling patterns created by features such as internal waves, which are produced when the tide moves over underwater features. Data from the international SWOT mission is revealing the role of smaller-scale waves and eddies.NASA The international mission collects two-dimensional views of smaller waves and currents that are bringing into focus the ocean’s role in supporting life on Earth.
      Small things matter, at least when it comes to ocean features like waves and eddies. A recent NASA-led analysis using data from the SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) satellite found that ocean features as small as a mile across potentially have a larger impact on the movement of nutrients and heat in marine ecosystems than previously thought.
      Too small to see well with previous satellites but too large to see in their entirety with ship-based instruments, these relatively small ocean features fall into a category known as the submesoscale. The SWOT satellite, a joint effort between NASA and the French space agency CNES (Centre National d’Études Spatiales), can observe these features and is demonstrating just how important they are, driving much of the vertical transport of things like nutrients, carbon, energy, and heat within the ocean. They also influence the exchange of gases and energy between the ocean and atmosphere.
      “The role that submesoscale features play in ocean dynamics is what makes them important,” said Matthew Archer, an oceanographer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Some of these features are called out in the animation below, which was created using SWOT sea surface height data.

      This animation shows small ocean features — including internal waves and eddies — derived from SWOT observations in the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific oceans, as well as the Mediterranean Sea. White and lighter blue represent higher ocean surface heights compared to darker blue areas. The purple colors shown in one location represent ocean current speeds.
      NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio “Vertical currents move heat between the atmosphere and ocean, and in submesoscale eddies, can actually bring up heat from the deep ocean to the surface, warming the atmosphere,” added Archer, who is a coauthor on the submesoscale analysis published in April in the journal Nature. Vertical circulation can also bring up nutrients from the deep sea, supplying marine food webs in surface waters like a steady stream of food trucks supplying festivalgoers.
      “Not only can we see the surface of the ocean at 10 times the resolution of before, we can also infer how water and materials are moving at depth,” said Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer, SWOT program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
      Fundamental Force
      Researchers have known about these smaller eddies, or circular currents, and waves for decades. From space, Apollo astronauts first spotted sunlight glinting off small-scale eddies about 50 years ago. And through the years, satellites have captured images of submesoscale ocean features, providing limited information such as their presence and size. Ship-based sensors or instruments dropped into the ocean have yielded a more detailed view of submesoscale features, but only for relatively small areas of the ocean and for short periods of time.
      The SWOT satellite measures the height of water on nearly all of Earth’s surface, including the ocean and freshwater bodies, at least once every 21 days. The satellite gives researchers a multidimensional view of water levels, which they can use to calculate, for instance, the slope of a wave or eddy. This in turn yields information on the amount of pressure, or force, being applied to the water in the feature. From there, researchers can figure out how fast a current is moving, what’s driving it and —combined with other types of information — how much energy, heat, or nutrients those currents are transporting.  
      “Force is the fundamental quantity driving fluid motion,” said study coauthor Jinbo Wang, an oceanographer at Texas A&M University in College Station. Once that quantity is known, a researcher can better understand how the ocean interacts with the atmosphere, as well as how changes in one affect the other.
      Prime Numbers
      Not only was SWOT able to spot a submesoscale eddy in an offshoot of the Kuroshio Current — a major current in the western Pacific Ocean that flows past the southeast coast of Japan — but researchers were also able to estimate the speed of the vertical circulation within that eddy. When SWOT observed the feature, the vertical circulation was likely 20 to 45 feet (6 to 14 meters) per day.
      This is a comparatively small amount for vertical transport. However, the ability to make those calculations for eddies around the world, made possible by SWOT, will improve researchers’ understanding of how much energy, heat, and nutrients move between surface waters and the deep sea.
      Researchers can do similar calculations for such submesoscale features as an internal solitary wave — a wave driven by forces like the tide sloshing over an underwater plateau. The SWOT satellite spotted an internal wave in the Andaman Sea, located in the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean off Myanmar. Archer and colleagues calculated that the energy contained in that solitary wave was at least twice the amount of energy in a typical internal tide in that region.
      This kind of information from SWOT helps researchers refine their models of ocean circulation. A lot of ocean models were trained to show large features, like eddies hundreds of miles across, said Lee Fu, SWOT project scientist at JPL and a study coauthor. “Now they have to learn to model these smaller scale features. That’s what SWOT data is helping with.”
      Researchers have already started to incorporate SWOT ocean data into some models, including NASA’s ECCO (Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean). It may take some time until SWOT data is fully a part of models like ECCO. But once it is, the information will help researchers better understand how the ocean ecosystem will react to a changing world.
      More About SWOT
      The SWOT satellite was jointly developed by NASA and CNES, with contributions from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the UK Space Agency. Managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL leads the U.S. component of the project. For the flight system payload, NASA provided the Ka-band radar interferometer (KaRIn) instrument, a GPS science receiver, a laser retroreflector, a two-beam microwave radiometer, and NASA instrument operations. The Doppler Orbitography and Radioposition Integrated by Satellite system, the dual frequency Poseidon altimeter (developed by Thales Alenia Space), the KaRIn radio-frequency subsystem (together with Thales Alenia Space and with support from the UK Space Agency), the satellite platform, and ground operations were provided by CNES. The KaRIn high-power transmitter assembly was provided by CSA.
      To learn more about SWOT, visit:
      https://swot.jpl.nasa.gov
      News Media Contacts
      Jane J. Lee / Andrew Wang
      Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
      626-491-1943 / 626-379-6874
      jane.j.lee@jpl.nasa.gov / andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov
      2025-070
      Share
      Details
      Last Updated May 15, 2025 Related Terms
      SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) Jet Propulsion Laboratory Oceanography Oceans Explore More
      6 min read NASA’s Magellan Mission Reveals Possible Tectonic Activity on Venus
      Article 23 hours ago 6 min read NASA Studies Reveal Hidden Secrets About Interiors of Moon, Vesta
      Article 1 day ago 5 min read NASA’s Europa Clipper Captures Mars in Infrared
      Article 3 days ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics
      Missions
      Humans in Space
      Climate Change
      Solar System
      View the full article
    • By NASA
      1 min read
      Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
      Will the Sun ever burn out?

      Well, the Sun, just like the stars we see at night, is a star. It’s a giant ball of super hot hydrogen.

      Gravity squeezes it in and it creates energy, which is what makes the Sun shine. Eventually, it will use up all of that hydrogen. But in the process, it’s creating helium. So it will then use the helium. And it will continue to use larger and larger elements until it can’t do this anymore.

      And when that happens, it will start to expand into a red giant about the size of the inner planets. Then it will shrink back down into a very strange star called a white dwarf — super hot, but not very bright and about the size of the Earth.

      But our Sun has a pretty long lifetime. It’s halfway through its 10-billion-year lifetime.

      So the Sun will never really burn out, but it will change and be a very, very different dim kind of star when it reaches the end of its normal life.

      [END VIDEO TRANSCRIPT]

      Full Episode List

      Full YouTube Playlist
      Share
      Details
      Last Updated May 15, 2025 Related Terms
      Science Mission Directorate Heliophysics Heliophysics Division The Solar System The Sun The Sun & Solar Physics Explore More
      4 min read Eclipses, Auroras, and the Spark of Becoming: NASA Inspires Future Scientists
      In the heart of Alaska’s winter, where the night sky stretches endlessly and the aurora…
      Article 16 hours ago 6 min read NASA Observes First Visible-light Auroras at Mars
      On March 15, 2024, near the peak of the current solar cycle, the Sun produced…
      Article 19 hours ago 6 min read NASA’s Magellan Mission Reveals Possible Tectonic Activity on Venus
      Article 19 hours ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics
      Missions
      Humans in Space
      Climate Change
      Solar System
      View the full article
    • By NASA
      6 min read
      Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
      This artist’s concept shows the Moon’s hot interior and volcanism about 2 to 3 billion years ago. It is thought that volcanic activity on the lunar near side (the side facing Earth) helped create a landscape dominated by vast plains called mare, which are formed by molten rock that cooled and solidified. NASA/JPL-Caltech Analyzing gravity data collected by spacecraft orbiting other worlds reveals groundbreaking insights about planetary structures without having to land on the surface.
      Although the Moon and the asteroid Vesta are very different, two NASA studies use the same technique to reveal new details about the interiors of both.
      In the lunar study, published May 14 in the journal Nature, researchers developed a new gravity model of the Moon that includes tiny variations in the celestial body’s gravity during its elliptical orbit around Earth. These fluctuations cause the Moon to flex slightly due to Earth’s tidal force — a process called tidal deformation — which provides critical insights into the Moon’s deep internal structure.
      Using their model, the researchers produced the most detailed lunar gravitational map yet, providing future missions an improved way to calculate location and time on the Moon. They accomplished this by analyzing data on the motion of NASA’s GRAIL (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory) mission, whose spacecraft, Ebb and Flow, orbited the Moon from Dec. 31, 2011, to Dec. 17, 2012.
      These views of the Moon’s near side, left, and far side were put together from observations made by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. NASA/JPL-Caltech In a second study, published in the journal Nature Astronomy on April 23, the researchers focused on Vesta, an object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Using NASA’s Deep Space Network radiometric data and imaging data from the agency’s Dawn spacecraft, which orbited the asteroid from July 16, 2011, to Sept. 5, 2012, they found that instead of having distinct layers as expected, Vesta’s internal structure may be mostly uniform, with a very small iron core or no core at all.
      “Gravity is a unique and fundamental property of a planetary body that can be used to explore its deep interior,” said Park. “Our technique doesn’t need data from the surface; we just need to track the motion of the spacecraft very precisely to get a global view of what’s inside.”
      Lunar Asymmetry
      The lunar study looked at gravitational changes to the Moon’s near and far sides. While the near side is dominated by vast plains — known as mare — formed by molten rock that cooled and solidified billions of years ago, the far side is more rugged, with few plains.
      NASA’s Dawn mission obtained this image of the giant asteroid Vesta on July 24, 2011. The spacecraft spent 14 months orbiting the asteroid, capturing more than 30,000 images and fully mapping its surface. NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA Both studies were led by Ryan Park, supervisor of the Solar System Dynamics Group at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, and were years in the making due to their complexity. The team used NASA supercomputers to build a detailed map of how gravity varies across each body. From that, they could better understand what the Moon and Vesta are made of and how planetary bodies across the solar system formed.
      Some theories suggest intense volcanism on the near side likely caused these differences. That process would have caused radioactive, heat-generating elements to accumulate deep inside the near side’s mantle, and the new study offers the strongest evidence yet that this is likely the case.
      “We found that the Moon’s near side is flexing more than the far side, meaning there’s something fundamentally different about the internal structure of the Moon’s near side compared to its far side,” said Park. “When we first analyzed the data, we were so surprised by the result we didn’t believe it. So we ran the calculations many times to verify the findings. In all, this is a decade of work.”
      When comparing their results with other models, Park’s team found a small but greater-than-expected difference in how much the two hemispheres deform. The most likely explanation is that the near side has a warm mantle region, indicating the presence of heat-generating radioactive elements, which is evidence for volcanic activity that shaped the Moon’s near side 2 billion to 3 billion years ago.
      Vesta’s Evolution
      Park’s team applied a similar approach for their study that focused on Vesta’s rotational properties to learn more about its interior.  
      “Our technique is sensitive to any changes in the gravitational field of a body in space, whether that gravitational field changes over time, like the tidal flexing of the Moon, or through space, like a wobbling asteroid,” said Park. “Vesta wobbles as it spins, so we could measure its moment of inertia, a characteristic that is highly sensitive to the internal structure of the asteroid.”
      Changes in inertia can be seen when an ice skater spins with their arms held outward. As they pull their arms in, bringing more mass toward their center of gravity, their inertia decreases and their spin speeds up. By measuring Vesta’s inertia, scientists can gain a detailed understanding of the distribution of mass inside the asteroid: If its inertia is low, there would be a concentration of mass toward its center; if it’s high, the mass would be more evenly distributed.
      Some theories suggest that over a long period, Vesta gradually formed onion-like layers and a dense core. But the new inertia measurement from Park’s team suggests instead that Vesta is far more homogeneous, with its mass distributed evenly throughout and only a small core of dense material, or no core.
      Gravity slowly pulls the heaviest elements to a planet’s center over time, which is how Earth ended up with a dense core of liquid iron. While Vesta has long been considered a differentiated asteroid, a more homogenous structure would suggest that it may not have fully formed layers or may have formed from the debris of another planetary body after a massive impact.
      In 2016, Park used the same data types as the Vesta study to focus on Dawn’s second target, the dwarf planet Ceres, and results suggested a partially differentiated interior.
      Park and his team recently applied a similar technique to Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io, using data acquired by NASA’s Juno and Galileo spacecraft during their flybys of the Jovian satellite as well as from ground-based observations. By measuring how Io’s gravity changes as it orbits Jupiter, which exerts a powerful tidal force, they revealed that the fiery moon is unlikely to possess a global magma ocean.
      “Our technique isn’t restricted just to Io, Ceres, Vesta, or the Moon,” said Park. “There are many opportunities in the future to apply our technique for studying the interiors of intriguing planetary bodies throughout the solar system.”
      News Media Contacts
      Ian J. O’Neill
      Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
      818-354-2649
      ian.j.oneill@jpl.nasa.gov
      Karen Fox / Molly Wasser
      NASA Headquarters, Washington
      202-358-1600
      karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / molly.l.wasser@nasa.gov
      Share
      Details
      Last Updated May 14, 2025 Related Terms
      Vesta Dawn Earth's Moon GRAIL (Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory) Jet Propulsion Laboratory Planetary Science Small Bodies of the Solar System The Solar System Explore More
      7 min read Webb’s Titan Forecast: Partly Cloudy With Occasional Methane Showers
      Saturn’s moon Titan is an intriguing world cloaked in a yellowish, smoggy haze. Similar to…
      Article 3 hours ago 5 min read NASA’s Europa Clipper Captures Mars in Infrared
      Article 2 days ago 5 min read NASA’s Webb Reveals New Details, Mysteries in Jupiter’s Aurora
      NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured new details of the auroras on our solar…
      Article 2 days ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics
      Missions
      Humans in Space
      Climate Change
      Solar System
      View the full article
    • By NASA
      Explore Webb Webb News Latest News Latest Images Webb’s Blog Awards X (offsite – login reqd) Instagram (offsite – login reqd) Facebook (offsite- login reqd) Youtube (offsite) Overview About Who is James Webb? Fact Sheet Impacts+Benefits FAQ Science Overview and Goals Early Universe Galaxies Over Time Star Lifecycle Other Worlds Observatory Overview Launch Deployment Orbit Mirrors Sunshield Instrument: NIRCam Instrument: MIRI Instrument: NIRSpec Instrument: FGS/NIRISS Optical Telescope Element Backplane Spacecraft Bus Instrument Module Multimedia About Webb Images Images Videos What is Webb Observing? 3d Webb in 3d Solar System Podcasts Webb Image Sonifications Team International Team People Of Webb More For the Media For Scientists For Educators For Fun/Learning 5 Min Read Another First: NASA Webb Identifies Frozen Water in Young Star System
      For the first time, researchers confirmed the presence of crystalline water ice in a dusty debris disk that orbits a Sun-like star, using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. The full artist’s concept illustration and full caption is shown below. Credits:
      NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI) Is frozen water scattered in systems around other stars? Astronomers have long expected it is, partially based on previous detections of its gaseous form, water vapor, and its presence in our own solar system.
      Now there is definitive evidence: Researchers confirmed the presence of crystalline water ice in a dusty debris disk that orbits a Sun-like star 155 light-years away using detailed data known as spectra from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. (The term water ice specifies its makeup, since many other frozen molecules are also observed in space, such as carbon dioxide ice, or “dry ice.”) In 2008, data from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope hinted at the possibility of frozen water in this system.
      “Webb unambiguously detected not just water ice, but crystalline water ice, which is also found in locations like Saturn’s rings and icy bodies in our solar system’s Kuiper Belt,” said Chen Xie, the lead author of the new paper and an assistant research scientist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
      All the frozen water Webb detected is paired with fine dust particles throughout the disk — like itsy-bitsy “dirty snowballs.” The results published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
      Astronomers have been waiting for this definitive data for decades. “When I was a graduate student 25 years ago, my advisor told me there should be ice in debris disks, but prior to Webb, we didn’t have instruments sensitive enough to make these observations,” said Christine Chen, a co-author and associate astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. “What’s most striking is that this data looks similar to the telescope’s other recent observations of Kuiper Belt objects in our own solar system.”
      Water ice is a vital ingredient in disks around young stars — it heavily influences the formation of giant planets and may also be delivered by small bodies like comets and asteroids to fully formed rocky planets. Now that researchers have detected water ice with Webb, they have opened the door for all researchers to study how these processes play out in new ways in many other planetary systems.
      Image: Debris Disk Around Star HD 181327 (Artist’s Concept)
      For the first time, researchers confirmed the presence of crystalline water ice in a dusty debris disk that orbits a Sun-like star, using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. All the frozen water detected by Webb is paired with fine dust particles throughout the disk. The majority of the water ice observed is found where it’s coldest and farthest from the star. The closer to the star the researchers looked, the less water ice they found. NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI) Rocks, Dust, Ice Rushing Around
      The star, cataloged HD 181327, is significantly younger than our Sun. It’s estimated to be 23 million years old, compared to the Sun’s more mature 4.6 billion years. The star is slightly more massive than the Sun, and it’s hotter, which led to the formation of a slightly larger system around it.
      Webb’s observations confirm a significant gap between the star and its debris disk — a wide area that is free of dust. Farther out, its debris disk is similar to our solar system’s Kuiper Belt, where dwarf planets, comets, and other bits of ice and rock are found (and sometimes collide with one another). Billions of years ago, our Kuiper Belt was likely similar to this star’s debris disk.
      “HD 181327 is a very active system,” Chen said. “There are regular, ongoing collisions in its debris disk. When those icy bodies collide, they release tiny particles of dusty water ice that are perfectly sized for Webb to detect.”
      Frozen Water — Almost Everywhere
      Water ice isn’t spread evenly throughout this system. The majority is found where it’s coldest and farthest from the star. “The outer area of the debris disk consists of over 20% water ice,” Xie said.
      The closer in the researchers looked, the less water ice they found. Toward the middle of the debris disk, Webb detected about 8% water ice. Here, it’s likely that frozen water particles are produced slightly faster than they are destroyed. In the area of the debris disk closest to the star, Webb detected almost none. It’s likely that the star’s ultraviolet light vaporizes the closest specks of water ice. It’s also possible that rocks known as planetesimals have “locked up” frozen water in their interiors, which Webb can’t detect.
      This team and many more researchers will continue to search for — and study — water ice in debris disks and actively forming planetary systems throughout our Milky Way galaxy. “The presence of water ice helps facilitate planet formation,” Xie said. “Icy materials may also ultimately be ‘delivered’ to terrestrial planets that may form over a couple hundred million years in systems like this.”
      The researchers observed HD 181327 with Webb’s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph), which is super-sensitive to extremely faint dust particles that can only be detected from space.
      The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
      To learn more about Webb, visit:
      https://science.nasa.gov/webb
      Downloads
      Click any image to open a larger version.
      View/Download all image products at all resolutions for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute.
      View/Download the research results from the journal Nature.
      Media Contacts
      Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov
      NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
      Claire Blome – cblome@stsci.edu
      Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
      Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.edu
      Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
      Related Information
      View Webb images of other debris disks around Vega, Fomalhaut, Beta Pictoris, and AU Microscopii
      Learn more about spectroscopy
      Read more: Webb’s Near-infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec)
      More Webb News
      More Webb Images
      Webb Science Themes
      Webb Mission Page
      Related For Kids
      What is the Webb Telescope?
      SpacePlace for Kids
      En Español
      Ciencia de la NASA
      NASA en español 
      Space Place para niños
      Keep Exploring Related Topics
      James Webb Space Telescope


      Webb is the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It studies every phase in the…


      Stars



      Stars Stories



      Universe


      Share








      Details
      Last Updated May 14, 2025 Editor Marty McCoy Contact Laura Betz laura.e.betz@nasa.gov Related Terms
      James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Astrophysics Goddard Space Flight Center Science & Research Stars The Universe View the full article
  • Check out these Videos

×
×
  • Create New...