Is it SNOWING in space? Water turning into ice spotted directly for the first time in disk around a young star

The team, led by researchers from the Universidad Diego Portales in Santiago, Chile, used the Attacama Large Millimetere Array (Alma) telescope in Chile to study the star (pictured inset). 


It is in the water snow line that water is vapourised (artist's impression pictured) and small rocky planets like our own are believed to form. Outside the water snow line, the presence of water ice allows the rapid formation of cosmic snowballs, which eventually go on to form massive gaseous planets such as Jupiter.