(ORDO NEWS) — A previously unknown asteroid measuring between 100 and 200 meters in size was discovered by an international team of astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope.
The project used data from the Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI), in which the team luckily spotted an asteroid.
This object is probably the smallest that Webb has observed to date. Additional observations are needed to better characterize the nature and properties of this asteroid.
“We – quite unexpectedly – discovered a small asteroid in MIRI’s publicly available calibration observations,” explained Thomas Müller, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany.
“These measurements are among the first MIRI measurements to target the plane of the ecliptic, and our work suggests that many new objects will be detected with this instrument.”
The Webb observations that astronomers used were not originally intended to search for new asteroids. In fact, these were calibration images of the main belt asteroid (10920) 1998 BC1, which astronomers discovered in 1998.
The calibration team felt that the images failed for technical reasons. Despite this, data from asteroid 10920 was used by the team to create and test a new method for limiting the object’s orbit and estimating its size.
The validity of the method was demonstrated for asteroid 10920 using MIRI observations combined with data from ground-based telescopes and the ESA Gaia mission.
While analyzing MIRI data, the team discovered a smaller and previously unknown asteroid. Astronomers assume that the object measures 100-200 meters and occupies an orbit with a very low inclination.
Small asteroids have been studied in less detail than their larger counterparts due to the difficulty of observing these objects. Future special Webb observations will allow astronomers to study asteroids smaller than 1 kilometer.
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