Scientists Find Water in Main Belt Comets Using James Webb Space Telescope | Prohaba.co

PROHABA.CO – Armed with data from the James Webb Space Telescope, scientists have managed to find water in comets in the main asteroid belt.

Astronomers use the James Webb Space Telescope to observe rare comets in our Solar System.

Apart from making scientific breakthroughs, the telescope apparently managed to reveal something else that was unexpected.

For the first time, the space telescope detected the presence of water on Comet Read, a main belt comet or comet located in the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

This discovery comes after 15 years of efforts by astronomers using different observation methods.

Origin of comets

Quoting CNN, Tuesday (16/5/2023) comets are usually in the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud, icy regions beyond Neptune’s orbit that can preserve some of the frozen material left over from the formation of the Solar System.

Comets travel on long, oval-shaped orbits around the Sun that can take thousands of years and have flowing tails that develop when cold bodies occasionally pass close to the Sun.

Their hazy appearance and tail material distinguish comets from asteroids.

Also read: Astronomers Successfully Find the Largest Comet in the Solar System

Also read: Used to have rivers, why is Mars now a dry and hot planet?

However, there is a rare subclass of comets called main belt comets.

The object has a circular orbit around the Sun which periodically exhibits comet-like behavior in general.

Given its location in the warm inner Solar System and closer to the Sun than most comets, main belt comets are not expected to harbor much ice until now.

However, recent findings have found otherwise.

Furthermore, this finding can add more evidence to the theory of how water became an abundant resource on Earth early in its history.