SCIENCE

Traces of water in the Solar System: the incredible discovery of the Webb telescope

It is an amazing time for space exploration. An incredible new discovery has just been made by the James Webb Space Telescope, which has been able to document traces of water in a rare comet orbiting in the main asteroid belt. 

This discovery is crucial for all those astronomers, and others, who are searching for the origins of the water that, in fact, made the proliferation of life in our world possible. 

The study was published in the journal Nature, and now opens up a new set of questions that will help shed light on the origin of life in our universe.

Freepik (generic image)
Traces of water in the Solar System: the incredible discovery of the Webb telescope
It is an amazing time for space exploration. An incredible new discovery has just been made by the James Webb Space Telescope, which has been able to document traces of water in a rare comet orbiting in the main asteroid belt. This discovery is crucial for all those astronomers, and others, who are searching for the origins of the water that, in fact, made the proliferation of life in our world possible.
Twitter - Nasa Webb Telescope
Water on a rare comet
Water on the comet is present in the form of water vapour, and its presence opens up other interesting questions. For example, one wonders what the differences are between this comet and, say, 38P/Read, which had no detectable traces of carbon dioxide.
Pubblico dominio, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56728
The researchers' study
Crucial to this discovery was the NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) instrument of Webb, the NASA/ESA/CSA space telescope. It was thus demonstrated how water from the primordial solar system can be preserved as ice in that region. (generic photo)
Di HeNRyKus - Wikimedia Commons, Pubblico dominio, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1
Where is the comet located
To make it clear exactly where this comet is, let us look at the picture. The main asteroid belt is shown in white, exactly between the orbits of the planet Mars and the planet Jupiter. (generic photo)
Getty Images (generic image James Webb)
The words of the study's authors (in photo, the launch of the Webb telescope)
Stephanie Milam, Webb Deputy Project Scientist for Planetary Science and coauthor of the study, says of the discovery of water on the comet: "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. Understanding the history of water distribution in the Solar System will help us understand other planetary systems and whether they might be on their way to hosting an Earth-like planet".
Getty Images (generic image James Webb)
The James Webb Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope is a space telescope for infrared astronomy,[2] launched on 25 December 2021 from the Arianespace spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, carried into solar orbit by an Ariane 5 rocket. The telescope is the result of an international collaboration between the US Space Agency (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
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