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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…