“James Webb Space Telescope Discovers Water Vapor on Main Belt Comet”

As reported by Engadget, researchers used the observatory’s near-infrared camera to detect the first known water vapor around a comet in the main asteroid belt, otherwise known as a main belt comet.

Researchers suspected that comets could have preserved water ice relatively close to the sun, but had no hard evidence until now.

Researchers hope the comet sits in either the Kuiper belt or the Oort cloud, both of which are far enough from the Sun for the ice to persist.

However, the findings have created a new puzzle. While carbon dioxide usually represents 10 percent of the potentially volatile material in comets, Webb’s instrument detected none in Read.

The researchers speculate that CO2 was lost over billions of years, or Read formed in a relatively comfortable part of the solar system that had no CO2.

Read was one of the first objects used to define the main belt comet category. While the James Webb Telescope is the first tool that is strong enough to study the comet in detail.

Regarding these findings, further observations are needed to understand whether the absence of CO2 read is a coincidence or belongs to other main belt comets.

(wbs)