The James Webb Space Telescope has been busy since it was launched. From the end of the universe to the nearest neighbor of the solar system, it seems that new discoveries will emerge immediately if it looks at it. This time Webb turned the lens to a star named “238P/Read” in the asteroid belt in the solar system, and confirmed that it is emitting water vapor.
Although Read is in the asteroid belt, it has the characteristics of a comet and periodically emits matter. Astronomers have temporarily classified it into the new classification of “asteroid belt comet” before, but it is impossible to confirm whether it has the same structure as ordinary comets until it is confirmed that the emitted matter is water molecules. Now that it has been confirmed by James Webb’s spectral analysis, we can be sure that it should be regarded as a kind of comet, but Webb also brings a new mystery-compared with ordinary comets, Read obviously lacks carbon dioxide. Is this because of the different formation environment, or because the carbon dioxide has already volatilized? It will have to wait for further research by astronomers.
Earth has a rather peculiar place in the solar system, as only Earth contains a significant amount of water. How the water came from and how it was distributed in the primitive solar system is a big topic for astronomy and geology, and it also directly affects whether other planets are suitable for human settlement in the future, and even whether exoplanets have water Possibility of base organisms. In the past, it was generally believed that the water should have been “evaporated” long ago in places close to the sun. Only in the Kuiper Belt and Oort Nebula beyond the orbit of Neptune will there be a large amount of water in the comet nucleus, and it will be affected by the external Only after the disturbance will it fall into the inner solar system. But now that the “comets” of the asteroid belt have been discovered, many hypotheses need to be re-examined, especially the lack of carbon dioxide, which means that these comets have been in the asteroid belt for a long time, or may even have formed in situ that’s it.
The next step for astronomers is to analyze the few other comet-like objects in the asteroid belt in the same way to determine whether the lack of carbon dioxide is a unique feature of Read or a common feature of asteroid belt comets.