Astronomers Spot Two Red Objects in the Asteroid Belt

Suara.com – They’re red, pretty big, and shouldn’t be on the belt asteroid main.

New research published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters details, the discovery of two very red main belt asteroids.

Named 203 Pompeiia and 269 ​​Justice, the asteroids have a redder spectral mark than other asteroids in the main belt, the asteroid band located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

This new paper was led by astronomer Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Sunao Hasegawa.

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This red asteroid resembles a trans-Neptunian object, that is, an object that is farther away from Neptune, the planet farthest from the Sun (without neglecting the dwarf planet Pluto).

This could mean that 203 Pompeja and 269 Justitia formed far out there in the Kuiper Belt and then drifted inward when the solar system was young.

If confirmed, the new findings show how chaotic conditions were back then and materials from different parts of the solar system sometimes mixed together.

The aim of this study was to document the distribution and composition of large asteroids in the main belt.

Large asteroids, especially those larger than 60 miles (100 km) wide, likely survived the early days of the solar system.

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By studying these objects, scientists hope to get a glimpse of what conditions were like about 4 billion years ago.

astronomers made near-infrared spectroscopic observations of the main belt using the Telescope Facility (IRTF) and the Seoul National University Astronomical Observatory (SAO).

This international collaboration involves scientists from MIT, University of Hawai’i, Seoul National University, Kyoto University, and several other institutions.

Asteroid 203 Pompeja is 68 miles (110 km) in diameter, while 269 Justitia is only half that.
Both have an extraordinary red spectrum, they reflect a lot of red light.

In fact, it’s redder than a D-type asteroid, previously believed to be the reddest object on Earth asteroid belt.

The outer solar system is packed with material left over from the formation of the solar system, including planetesimals (asteroids) and centaurs (ice planetesimals located between Jupiter and Neptune).

These distant objects are very red, containing complex organic compounds such as methane and methanol ice.

This compound, when viewed through a spectrograph, gives the asteroid a reddish appearance Gizmodo, Saturday (31/7/2021).

In contrast, objects in the inner solar system have few traces of organic matter, so they tend to reflect blue light.

“Asteroids 203 Pompeja and 269 Justitia are thought to have formed near the outer edge of the Solar System, beyond the distant organic snow line and then moved into the asteroid belt during the early solar system formation epoch,” notes a JAXA press release.

“Organic snow lines,” the scientists refer to the locations in the solar system where methanol and methane turn into ice.

These findings suggest that several main belt asteroids formed in the outer solar system, and populations of these objects may exist within the main belt.

The new study points to the main belt as a good destination for future missions.

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