JWST sighting of decametre main-belt asteroids and view on meteorite sources

Kód výsledku v IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11320%2F25%3A10511143" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11320/25:10511143 - isvavai.cz</a>

Výsledek na webu

<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=dxjq0S5-xE" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=dxjq0S5-xE</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08480-z" target="_blank" >10.1038/s41586-024-08480-z</a>

Jazyk výsledku

angličtina

Název v původním jazyce

JWST sighting of decametre main-belt asteroids and view on meteorite sources

Popis výsledku v původním jazyce

Asteroid discoveries are essential for planetary-defence efforts aiming to prevent impacts with Earth(1), including the more frequent(2) megaton explosions from decametre impactors(3, 4, 5-6). Although large asteroids (&gt;= 100kilometres) have remained in the main belt since their formation(7), small asteroids are commonly transported to the near-Earth object (NEO) population(8,9). However, owing to the lack of direct observational constraints, their size-frequency distribution (SFD)-which informs our understanding of the NEOs and the delivery of meteorite samples to Earth-varies substantially among models(10, 11, 12, 13-14). Here we report 138 detections of some of the smallest asteroids (greater than or similar to 10metres) ever observed in the main belt, which were enabled by JWST&apos;s infrared capabilities covering the emission peaks of the asteroids(15) and synthetic tracking techniques(16, 17-18). Despite small orbital arcs, we constrain the distances and phase angles of the objects using known asteroids as proxies, allowing us to derive sizes through radiometric techniques. Their SFD shows a break at about 100metres (debiased cumulative slopes of q=-2.660.60 and -0.97 +/- 0.14 for diameters smaller and larger than roughly 100metres, respectively), suggestive of a population driven by collisional cascade. These asteroids were sampled from several asteroid families-most probably Nysa, Polana and Massalia-according to the geometry of pointings considered here. Through further long-stare infrared observations, JWST is poised to serendipitously detect thousands of decametre-scale asteroids across the sky, examining individual asteroid families(19) and the source regions of meteorites(13,14) &apos;in situ&apos;.

Název v anglickém jazyce

JWST sighting of decametre main-belt asteroids and view on meteorite sources

Popis výsledku anglicky

Asteroid discoveries are essential for planetary-defence efforts aiming to prevent impacts with Earth(1), including the more frequent(2) megaton explosions from decametre impactors(3, 4, 5-6). Although large asteroids (&gt;= 100kilometres) have remained in the main belt since their formation(7), small asteroids are commonly transported to the near-Earth object (NEO) population(8,9). However, owing to the lack of direct observational constraints, their size-frequency distribution (SFD)-which informs our understanding of the NEOs and the delivery of meteorite samples to Earth-varies substantially among models(10, 11, 12, 13-14). Here we report 138 detections of some of the smallest asteroids (greater than or similar to 10metres) ever observed in the main belt, which were enabled by JWST&apos;s infrared capabilities covering the emission peaks of the asteroids(15) and synthetic tracking techniques(16, 17-18). Despite small orbital arcs, we constrain the distances and phase angles of the objects using known asteroids as proxies, allowing us to derive sizes through radiometric techniques. Their SFD shows a break at about 100metres (debiased cumulative slopes of q=-2.660.60 and -0.97 +/- 0.14 for diameters smaller and larger than roughly 100metres, respectively), suggestive of a population driven by collisional cascade. These asteroids were sampled from several asteroid families-most probably Nysa, Polana and Massalia-according to the geometry of pointings considered here. Through further long-stare infrared observations, JWST is poised to serendipitously detect thousands of decametre-scale asteroids across the sky, examining individual asteroid families(19) and the source regions of meteorites(13,14) &apos;in situ&apos;.

Druh

J_imp - Článek v periodiku v databázi Web of Science

CEP obor

—

OECD FORD obor

10308 - Astronomy (including astrophysics,space science)

Projekt

<a href="/cs/project/GA25-16507S" target="_blank" >GA25-16507S: Raný orbitální vývoj planet a výzkum populací asteroidů</a><br>

Návaznosti

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Rok uplatnění

2025

Kód důvěrnosti údajů

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Název periodika

Nature

ISSN

0028-0836

e-ISSN

1476-4687

Svazek periodika

638

Číslo periodika v rámci svazku

8049

Stát vydavatele periodika

GB - Spojené království Velké Británie a Severního Irska

Počet stran výsledku

20

Strana od-do

74-78

Kód UT WoS článku

001408562000001

EID výsledku v databázi Scopus

2-s2.0-85217249170