An asteroid about the size of the Colosseum in Rome, 100 to 200 meters in length, has been detected by an international team of European astronomers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.
According to a report published on the agency's website, the project used data from the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) calibration, in which the team happened to detect this interloper asteroid.
The object is probably the smallest observed to date by Webb and may be an example of an object measuring less than 1 kilometer in length within the main asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter.
Thomas Müller, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany, explained: "Completely unexpectedly, we detected a small asteroid in the publicly available MIRI calibration observations."
"The measurements are some of the first MIRI measurements targeting the ecliptic plane and our work suggests that many new objects will be detected with this instrument."
The team's results suggest that the object is between 100 and 200 meters across, occupies a very low inclination orbit, and was located in the inner region of the main belt at the time of Webb's observations.
"Our detection lies in the main asteroid belt, but Webb's incredible sensitivity made it possible to see this roughly 100-meter object at a distance of more than 100 million kilometers," Müller said.
The detection of this asteroid, which the team suspects to be the smallest observed to date by James Webb and one of the smallest detected in the main belt, if confirmed as a new asteroid discovery, would have important implications for our understanding of the formation and evolution of the Solar System.
Bryan Holler, Webb's support scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, noted that "This is a fantastic result which highlights the capabilities of MIRI to serendipitously detect a previously undetectable size of asteroid in the main belt."
"Repeats of these observations are in the process of being scheduled, and we are fully expecting new asteroid interlopers in those images."
