Artist's impression: Water on comet 238P/Read sublimates - and produces the coma and tail typical of comets. © Nasa, Esa
With the help of the James Webb Space Telescope, researchers discover that there is water in the asteroid belt. But at the same time, they are faced with a new mystery.
College Park - The "James Webb" telescope, operated by the space agencies Nasa, Esa and CSA, has made significant scientific progress. For the first time, the telescope, which cost ten billion US dollars, was used to detect water in the main belt between the planets Mars and Jupiter. The "Webb" instrument NIRSpec enabled the researchers involved to identify water vapor around a comet in the main belt. This groundbreaking discovery shows that water ice from the early days of the solar system can be preserved in this region.
The water was discovered around comet 238P/Read, which is located in the main belt and regularly has a coma (a foggy shell around the comet's nucleus) as well as a tail. Read is one of the few known comets in the main belt. Research suggests that most comets are located at the edge of the solar system, in the Kuiper belt and in the Oort cloud. These regions, which are located far from the Sun, are subject to freezing temperatures, which preserves ice from the early days of the solar system. When a comet approaches the Sun, the ice goes directly into the gaseous state, creating the characteristic comet tail.
"James Webb" discovers water on a comet in the main belt
"In the past, we've seen objects in the main belt that had all the characteristics of a comet," said University of Maryland astronomer Michael Kelley, who led the study. "But only with these precise spectral data from 'Webb' can we say: Yes, it's definitely water ice that creates this effect."
Since the discovery of comets in the main belt in 2006, there has been speculation about the presence of water in this region. The new research, published in the journal Nature, now provides evidence of this for the first time. This discovery could also help answer a question that has long occupied researchers: Where do the large amounts of water on Earth come from?
One of the big questions of science: How did all the water get to Earth?
"Our water-soaked world, teeming with life and unique in the universe as far as we know, is something of a mystery — we're not sure how all this water got here," Stefanie Milam, a co-author of the study, said in a statement. The new research results should not only help to clarify the question of water on Earth, but also be applied to other planetary systems. As the researcher pointed out, understanding the distribution history of water in the solar system will help explore other planetary systems and find out if they could potentially host an Earth-like planet.
Image of comet 238P/Read with the NIRCam instrument of the James Webb Space Telescope. The coma and tail of the comet are clearly visible. © NASA, ESA, CSA, M. Kelley (University of Maryland). Image processing: H. Hsieh (Planetary Science Institute), A. Pagan (STScI)
New mystery in the solar system: Why does the comet lack carbon dioxide?
At the same time, the study of comet Read by "James Webb" also poses a new mystery to researchers: no carbon dioxide could be detected - a substance that accounts for about ten percent of the material evaporated by the sun in all other comets. Kelley's research team has not yet found an explanation for this, but it has ideas: Read may have lost its carbon dioxide over time due to the higher temperatures in the main belt.
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"A long stay in the main belt could do this — carbon dioxide evaporates more easily than water ice and could evaporate over billions of years," Kelley said. Alternatively, the comet could have formed in a particularly warm region of the solar system where there was no carbon dioxide.
Most recently, the James Webb telescope discovered mysterious water vapor around an exoplanet.
This article, written by the editors, used machine support. The article was carefully reviewed by editor Tanja Banner before publication.
