stsci_2023-108a January 26th, 2023
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb), ESO/M. Kornmesser and S. Brunier, N. Risinger (skysurvey.org)
A previously unknown 100–200-metre asteroid — roughly the size of Rome’s Colosseum — has been detected by an international team of European astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. Their project used data from the calibration of the Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI), in which the team serendipitously detected an interloping asteroid. The object is likely the smallest observed to date by Webb and belongs to the poorly known sub-kilometer category in the Main Belt.
Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute
Image Source: https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2023/news-2023-108
Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA
Image Use Policy: https://www.stsci.edu/copyright
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