The JWST was never intended to find asteroids. It was built to probe some of our deepest, most demanding questions about the cosmos: how the first stars formed, how galaxies have evolved, how planets like ours take shape, and even how life originated. However, it’s first and foremost a powerful infrared telescope and its unrivalled … Read more
Scientists believe that two asteroids might be fragments of long-lost “planetary embryos” from the early solar system. These embryos, somewhere between small planetesimals and fully formed planets, were abundant during the solar system’s formative stages and played a critical role in planetary formation. Two asteroids in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, (246) … Read more
Back to Article List MIT researchers have identified 138 near-Earth objects using a common astrophotography technique. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveals a population of small asteroids in the main asteroid belt in this artist’s illustration. Credit: Ella Maru/MIT Over the past 200 years, astronomers have cataloged over a million asteroids in the solar system’s … Read more