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First Detection of CO₂ Emission in a Centaur: JWST NIRSpec Observations of 39P/Oterma

Villanueva, G. L.; Faggi, S.; DiSanti, M. A. +9 more

Centaurs are minor solar system bodies with orbits transitioning between those of trans-Neptunian scattered disk objects and Jupiter-family comets (JFCs). 39P/Oterma (39P) is a frequently active centaur that has recently held both centaur and JFC classifications and was observed with the JWST NIRSpec instrument on 2022 July 27 UTC while it was 5.8…