NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy airborne telescope, called SOFIA has detected water molecules on the surface of two different asteroids, Iris and Massalia. The groundbreaking discovery marks another step forward in the direction of uncovering the mysteries surrounding space and our solar system, proving that these asteroids might be something more than mere “dried-up space rocks”.
The study was published on Monday in The Planetary Science Journal.
According to a widely-held theory, “asteroids crashing into our planet may have helped deliver water and other elements to early Earth,” so the recent findings could help verify this claim.
The two silicate-rich asteroids lie in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and are more than 223.1 million miles from the sun. The Faint Object infraRed CAmera for the SOFIA Telescope, or FORCAST instrument was used in the stunning discovery. According to CNN, the now-retired NASA telescope “flew aboard a Boeing 747SP aircraft modified to fly through the stratosphere above 99% of Earth’s atmosphere, which blocks infrared light”.
The amount of water detected is “equivalent to to that of a 12-ounce bottle of water trapped within a cubic meter of soil, which is comparable to SOFIA’s moon finding” said Dr, Anicia Arredondo, research scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.
NASA’s SOFIA Had Also Discovered Water On Moon
The telescope had “picked up on the signature of water molecules in one of the largest craters in the moon’s southern hemisphere in 2020,” and this prompted astronomers to use SOFIA for the asteroid mission as well.
Previously Dr. Maggie McAdam, research scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California had found evidence of water on the two asteroids, however, researchers were unsure about the molecular compound and couldn’t determine if it was indeed water or another molecular compound like hydroxyl, said Dr. Arredondo.
“Our new observations with SOFIA definitively said that what they saw was indeed water,” added Arredondo. “But these objects are part of the S-class of asteroids, which means they are mostly made of silicates, and up until Dr. McAdam’s results, they were assumed to be completely dry.”
JWST In Search Of Water On Other Asteroids
The research team had studied two other asteroids Parthenope and Melpomene alongside Iris and Massalia, however the water detection on the first two were too faint.
The James Webb Space Telescope is currently on mission to look for water signatures on other asteroids. “The James Webb telescope is much larger than SOFIA telescope, so it can collect data with higher quality, and it can collect data for more asteroids in a shorter amount of time,” Dr. Arredondo stated. “I hope to be able to observe many different asteroid with JWST to look for this signature of water, and hopefully be able to take inventory of the water in the asteroid belt.”
JWST will also aid in understanding the distribution of water across the solar system and also help analyze the composition of different asteroids.
“We really weren’t expecting to find water on these silicate-rich asteroids,” Arredondo said. “Mostly when we talk about hydration on asteroids, we are talking about more carbon-rich asteroids, like asteroid Bennu that NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission went to. So now I want to look for trends between (the) amount of hydration and composition. I want to know if the carbon-rich asteroids have significantly more water than silicate-rich asteroids, or if they have similar amounts.”
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