NASA's Webb Will Study the 'Building Blocks' of Our Solar System

May 21, 2020 10:00AM (EDT)Release ID: 2020-25
Ceres, a dwarf planet, appears centered and takes up about one third of the view. It is gray and rocky, and appears against the black background of space. Ceres is lit by the Sun from the left side and in shadow along the right. Its surface has craters of various sizes.

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.

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