JWST Makes Groundbreaking Discovery: Carbon Dioxide Found in Centaur

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has detected carbon dioxide in a Centaur for the first time, specifically in Centaur 39P/Oterma. Centaurs are small planetary bodies that orbit between Jupiter and Neptune and exhibit characteristics of both comets and asteroids. This discovery could provide valuable insights into the formation, evolution, and composition of Centaurs and the early solar system. The study used JWST's Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) instrument and ground-based observations to analyze 39P/Oterma. The detection of carbon dioxide in a Centaur could revolutionize our understanding of these celestial objects and their role in the solar system.