NASA’s James Webb telescope captured the first asteroid belt seen outside the solar system. Read to know more about the new discovery.
The James Webb telescope captures a new discovery:
The asteroid belt is a group of space rocks. The asteroids are believed to be mini-planets that did not make the cut to become planets. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was successful in capturing a picture of the solar system. Surprisingly, it revealed the presence of three astroid belts, two in the inner system and another further out. The image is the first ever where an asteroid belt was seen outside the solar system. The solar system is formed around Fomalhaut, a young star located 25 light-years away. The three asteroid belts extend out for 14 million miles around Fomalhaut.
JWST’s predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope previously clicked the image of the outer belt. However, JWST’s image is much more powerful due to its ability to take images in infrared light, allowing a deeper look. “Where Webb really excels is that we’re able to physically resolve the thermal glow from dust in those inner regions. So you can see inner belts that we could never see before,” stated Schuyler Wolff. Wolff is an astronomer at the University of Arizona and worked on the research.
More on the asteroid belt
Fomalhaut is the brightest star in Piscis Austrinus, the southern constellation hence, easy to locate by the naked eye. However, the gravitational fields of planets can likely carve out the asteroid belts around the star. This is because asteroid belts are generally affected by the gravity of the planets in the star system.
“The belts around Fomalhaut are kind of a mystery novel: Where are the planets? I think it’s not a very big leap to say there’s probably a really interesting planetary system around the star,” stated George Rieke. Rieke is a member of the team and the American science lead for the JWST’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). “We definitely didn’t expect the more complex structure with the second intermediate belt and then the broader asteroid belt. That structure is very exciting because any time an astronomer sees a gap and rings in a disk, they say, ‘There could be an embedded planet shaping the rings!’” he added.