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Spectroscopic identification of water emission from a main-belt comet

science

Main-belt comets are small solar system bodies located in the asteroid belt that repeatedly exhibit comet-like activity (i.e., dust comae or tails) during their perihelion passages, strongly suggesting ice sublimation.^(1,2) Although the existence of main-belt comets implies the presence of extant water ice in the asteroid belt, no gas has been detected around these objects despite intense scrutiny with the world's largest telescopes.³ Here, we present JWST observations which clearly show that

NCBI     May 15, 2023