All articles tagged with #main belt comet
China launched the Tianwen-2 mission to study two unique objects in our solar system: an asteroid called Kamoʻoalewa, potentially a lunar fragment, and a main belt comet 311P/Pan-STARRS, both of which have never been visited by spacecraft before. The mission aims to collect asteroid samples and conduct a flyby of the comet, promising new insights into these mysterious celestial bodies and their origins.
Planetary scientists have confirmed the discovery of a new main-belt comet, 456P/PANSTARRS, located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. This comet, identified by Henry Hsieh and colleagues, exhibits repeated activity due to ice vaporization, distinguishing it from asteroids that show activity from other causes. Main-belt comets are rare, and their study helps scientists understand the distribution of ice in the solar system.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has detected water vapor around a main belt comet, Comet 238P/Read, for the first time, indicating that water ice from the early solar system can be preserved in the asteroid belt. However, the comet was missing carbon dioxide, which is present in all other comets. Scientists are now on an unexpected quest to understand why Comet Read lacks carbon dioxide and whether other main belt comets also lack it. The discovery could help scientists understand the history of water distribution in the solar system and the origins of Earth's abundant water.