YEKATERINBURG, December 27. /TASS/. The research team from Urals Federal University has joined the Ice Age project for observing inter-stellar ice through the James Webb space telescope (JWST) and will conduct experiments to grow similar ice under laboratory conditions, Head of the University’s Astrochemical Research Laboratory Anton Vasyunin told TASS on Monday.

As the researcher explained, the James Webb space telescope will for the first time enable scientists to come close to discovering complex organic molecules in interstellar ices and study the atmospheres of planets around other stars in detail.

"The telescope will record inter-stellar ice spectra. We will simulate the ice structure in the laboratory and begin conducting experiments for growing similar ice. This will help create the base for interpreting the space telescope’s observations and make predictions on what and where it makes sense for the telescope to search for," Vasyunin said.

As the scientist explained, inter-stellar ice is the matter for future oceans and the atmospheres of young planets and also complex organics that may give rise to life similar to that on Earth. The study of interstellar ice is complicated by its infrared spectrum inaccessible for observations from Earth, he said.

The astrochemical research laboratory has been set up at Urals Federal University as a follow-up of a new research area it has launched for the theoretical studies of the evolution of the interstellar medium’s molecular structure and the regions where stars and planets originate. The studies carried out in the laboratory together with leading Russian and foreign scientists have already won Russian and worldwide acclaim. In particular, the studies have received support from the Russian Scientific Fund.

The James Webb space telescope is a joint project of NASA, the European and Canadian Space Agencies. Representatives of 258 companies, government agencies and academic institutes from 17 countries have made their contribution to the project. The telescope was launched on December 25. The first scientific observations with the help of the telescope will commence in early 2022. Astronomers will use the James Webb space telescope to study the formation of planets and the first stars and galaxies.