NASA's Webb Will Study the 'Building Blocks' of Our Solar System
Summary
Researchers will observe far-flung asteroids, some with moons, to learn more about the makeup and history of our solar system
Asteroids, many of which are locked in orbits between Mars and Jupiter, are the rocky leftovers of planet formation. The outer planets continually stirred them up, preventing them from combining to form larger bodies. But where did they originally form? And what clues might they offer about the history of planetary migration in the early solar system? In one observation program, NASA’s upcoming James Webb Space Telescope will probe five bodies, three in the main asteroid belt and two Trojan asteroids, to shed new light on the drama that occurred billions of years ago.
Full Article
Millions of asteroids roam our solar system. Many are clustered between Mars and Jupiter in the main asteroid belt while another group, known as Trojans, both lead and follow Jupiter. What can these chunks of rock, which zip around the solar system like race cars, tell us about the formation of the solar system? Upcoming research with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, led by Andrew S. Rivkin of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, will yield new data that will help astronomers begin to unravel these mysteries. "What’s great about asteroids is that there are so ...Visit NASA Science to view the full news release including article text and associated Webb imagery, graphics, scientific visualizations, videos, captions, text descriptions, and other information.
News releases highlighting the discoveries of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope are produced for NASA by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, under NASA Contract NAS5-03127. News release content is developed by the News Team in STScI’s Office of Public Outreach.
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