2023-05-23 10:23:58
he James Space Telescope WEB (JWST, abbreviated in English) is a space observatory, mainly developed by NASA, which is considered the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, and has very high technical capabilities.
Now, thanks to the telescope’s Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRSpec) instrument, verification Milestone in the history of astronomy: the presence of water vapor around a comet in the main asteroid belt (the vast region of our solar system between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars).
The analyzed comet in question 238p / read.
Comet tail water
he 238p / read It is particularly noteworthy because it is one of the few comets found in the main asteroid belt, an exception to the general rule that comets come from the outer solar system.
Until now, the configuration of the iconic tail left behind by a comet as it hurtles through space is not known. Now we know it’s vapor. But there’s more: Telescope instruments have revealed it 238P / reading does not contain carbon dioxideA component that makes up 10% of the matter that evaporates when approaching the sun.
A characteristic of asteroids is that they release water and carbon dioxide when heated (evaporation). There are two possible hypotheses. For one thing, the comet may have lost all of its carbon dioxide before the instruments at James Webb could detect it. Another reason is that it may have originated in a “very hot” region of the solar system where there is no carbon dioxide.
However, thanks to James Webb’s observations of comet reads, it can now be confirmed that water ice from the early solar system may be preserved in the asteroid belt. However, the investigation continues and questions mount.
new Horizons
With James Webb in orbit, it is now possible to study other main belt comets, which are much smaller and fainter. These new questions remain unexplored before they are answered.
So the next step is to take the probe beyond reading the comet to see how it compares to other comets in the main belt. According to astronomer Heidi HamelPresident of the Association of Universities for Astronomical Research (AURA) Guaranteed Temporal Observation of Solar System Objects Web Program and co-author of the study:
“Now that Webb has confirmed that there is preserved water similar to the asteroid belt, it will be exciting to follow up this discovery with sample work and see what main-belt comets can tell us.”
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