Search Publications
Achievement of the Planetary Defense Investigations of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission
Buratti, Bonnie J.; Kolokolova, Ludmilla; Zinzi, Angelo +126 more
NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission was the first to demonstrate asteroid deflection, and the mission's Level 1 requirements guided its planetary defense investigations. Here, we summarize DART's achievement of those requirements. On 2022 September 26, the DART spacecraft impacted Dimorphos, the secondary member of the Didymos n…
JWST Near-infrared Spectroscopy of the Lucy Jupiter Trojan Flyby Targets: Evidence for OH Absorption, Aliphatic Organics, and CO2
Noll, Keith S.; Grundy, William M.; Brown, Michael E. +6 more
We present observations obtained with the Near Infrared Spectrograph on JWST of the five Jupiter Trojans that will be visited by the Lucy spacecraft—the Patroclus–Menoetius binary, Eurybates, Orus, Leucus, and Polymele. The measured 1.7–5.3 µm reflectance spectra, which provide increased wavelength coverage, spatial resolution, and signal-to…
Revealing Callisto's Carbon-rich Surface and CO2 Atmosphere with JWST
de Pater, Imke; Roth, Lorenz; Malaska, Michael J. +18 more
We analyzed spectral cubes of Callisto's leading and trailing hemispheres, collected with the NIRSpec Integrated Field Unit (G395H) on the James Webb Space Telescope. These spatially resolved data show strong 4.25 µm absorption bands resulting from solid-state 12CO2, with the strongest spectral features at low latitudes…
Estimate of Water and Hydroxyl Abundance on Asteroid (16) Psyche from JWST Data
Woodward, Charles E.; Rivkin, Andrew S.; Müller, Thomas G. +10 more
Our understanding of solar system evolution is closely tied to interpretations of asteroid composition, particularly the M-class asteroids. These asteroids were initially thought to be the exposed cores of differentiated planetesimals, a hypothesis based on their spectral similarity to iron meteorites. However, recent astronomical observations hav…
Pre-impact Thermophysical Properties and the Yarkovsky Effect of NASA DART Target (65803) Didymos
Kolb, Ulrich C.; Daly, R. Terik; Rivkin, Andrew S. +8 more
The NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft impacted the secondary body of the binary asteroid (65803) Didymos on 2022 September 26 and altered its orbit about the primary body. Before the DART impact, we performed visible and mid-infrared observations to constrain the pre-impact thermophysical properties of the Didymos system and …
Europa's H2O2: Temperature Insensitivity and a Correlation with CO2
Brown, Michael E.; de Kleer, Katherine; Trumbo, Samantha K. +1 more
H2O2 is part of Europa's water-ice radiolytic cycle and a potential source of oxidants to Europa's subsurface ocean. However, factors controlling the concentration of this critical surface species remain unclear. Though laboratory experiments suggest that Europa's H2O2 should be concentrated in the colde…
JWST Spectrophotometry of the Small Satellites of Uranus and Neptune
Brown, Michael E.; Belyakov, Matthew; Wong, Ian +2 more
We use 1.4–4.6 µm multiband photometry of the small inner Uranian and Neptunian satellites obtained with the James Webb Space Telescope's near-infrared imager NIRCam to characterize their surface compositions. We find that the satellites of the ice giants have, to first order, similar compositions to one another, with a 3.0 µm absorpti…
Near to Mid-infrared Spectroscopy of (65803) Didymos as Observed by JWST: Characterization Observations Supporting the Double Asteroid Redirection Test
de León, Julia; Lucchetti, Alice; Pajola, Maurizio +17 more
The Didymos binary asteroid was the target of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, which intentionally impacted Dimorphos, the smaller member of the binary system. We used the Near-Infrared Spectrograph and Mid-Infrared Instrument instruments on JWST to measure the 0.6-5 and 5-20 µm spectra of Didymos approximately two months…
The State of CO and CO2 Ices in the Kuiper Belt as Seen by JWST
Fraser, Wesley C.; Brown, Michael E.
JWST has shown that CO2 and CO are common on the surfaces of objects in the Kuiper Belt and have apparent surface coverages even higher than that of water ice, though water ice is expected to be significantly more abundant in the bulk composition. Using full Mie scattering theory, we show that the high abundance and the unusual spectral…
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…