English

JWST Edge-on Disk Ice (JEDIce): Program overview and ice survey results

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics 2026-03-20 v1 Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Abstract

The icy material within protoplanetary disks plays a central role in planet formation, yet remains poorly characterized by observations. We present 1.6-28μ\mum spectra of five disks obtained as part of the JWST Edge-on Disk Ice (JEDIce) program, representing the largest survey of disk ices to date. The major ice species H2_2O, CO2_2, and CO are detected towards all disks, and exhibit a wide range of absolute optical depths and optical depth ratios across the sample. This is suggestive of a range of ice abundances and compositions, but quantitative constraints will require radiative transfer modeling. All disks exhibit ice features across the entire spatial region where the IR continuum is detected; vertically elevated ice grains therefore seem to be ubiquitous in disks. The CO ice is consistently dominated by apolar CO:CO2_2 mixtures, implying that the disk ice compositions are neither completely reset nor pristinely inherited from the protostellar stage. The presence of these mixtures also suggests that entrapment may be important in shaping the spatial distribution of CO within the disks. Small molecules commonly seen in protostellar ices (CH4_4, CH3_3OH, NH3_3) are generally not detected in our sample, though tracers of ammonium salts (OCN^- and the 6.85 μ\mum band) are common, potentially reflecting an evolution towards comet-like ice compositions. The spectra also contain a wealth of information about the micron-sized dust, atomic and molecular gas, and PAH content, which together with the ice constraints will provide a comprehensive picture of the chemical, physical, and dynamical state of these systems.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.18163,
  title  = {JWST Edge-on Disk Ice (JEDIce): Program overview and ice survey results},
  author = {Jennifer B. Bergner and Nicole Arulanantham and Emmanuel Dartois and Maria N. Drozdovskaya and Daniel Harsono and Melissa McClure and Jennifer A. Noble and Karin I. Öberg and Klaus M. Pontoppidan and Yao-Lun Yang and Korash Assani and Zhi-Yun Li and Julia C. Santos and Will E. Thompson and Lukas Welzel and Elizabeth S. Yunerman and Aditya M. Arabhavi and Alice S. Booth and Charles Mentzer and Mayank Narang and Thomas Henning and Inga Kamp and Giulia Perotti and Alice Somigliana},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.18163},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Accepted to ApJ