James Webb telescope discovers icy water in asteroid rings

Some activities in science, whether small or large, require great dedication and attention. And sometimes a little luck and a very powerful telescope.

with a telescope James Webbscientists from NASA managed to observe the rings around the asteroid, consisting of ice and water.

James Webb Expands the Possibilities of Spatial Research

The feat was made possible thanks to the tool Near infrared camera (NIRCam) by James Webb, the Brazilian’s previous observational research is a phenomenon called an eclipse when a celestial body passes in front of a star and blocks its light.

“This is Webb’s first look at a stellar eclipse (when a foreground object passes in front of a star from our vantage point on Earth). The moving object here is Chariklo, a small icy body between Saturn and Uranus, with a star in the center.“.

The highlight of this observation is Chariklo and their rings. It is the largest centaur asteroid in the solar system, located more than three billion kilometers beyond the orbit of Saturn and 250 kilometers smaller than Earth in diameter.

passing by a star Gaia DR3 6873519665992128512 If an eclipse occurs, it turns out that the rings orbiting Chariklo are composed of small particles of water ice mixed with dark material, which are likely fragments of an icy body that collided with an asteroid in the past. These rings are very thin and are located at a distance of about 400 km from the center of the body. The discovery was made by Pablo Santos-Sans from Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia in Granada, Spain.

“As we dig deeper into the data, we will check if we have resolved both rings correctly. From the light curve shapes of the ring coatings, we also explore ring thicknesses, particle sizes and colors, and more. We hope to understand why this small body has rings, and perhaps find new, fainter rings.Santos-Sans said.

The current discoveries are only possible because these rings were discovered in 2013 by Brazilian astronomer Felipe Braga Ribas, Ph.D. in astronomy and astrophysics. National observatoryin Brazil and Paris Observatoryin France.

The James Webb Telescope has opened up new perspectives for studying the cosmos and has added several possibilities for future observations of the Universe.

Source: NASA.

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