smallest

Smallest main-belt asteroids ever detected found in JWST data

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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

“It’s like taking a picture of lightning:” How astronomers raced to track the smallest asteroid ever seen

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Astronomer Teddy Kareta had spent countless nights over the years observing various objects across our solar system using Arizona’s Lowell Discovery Telescope, or LDT. On Nov. 19, 2022, he set his alarm to ring shortly before midnight, in preparation for what he presumed would be a quiet observing night — and woke up to missed … Read more