Recent research using data from the SOFIA infrared telescope has discovered water on two asteroids.
An international team of researchers using data from the SOFIA infrared telescope has discovered water on the asteroids Iris and Masalia. This was reported by Science Alert.
There are about a million asteroids orbiting the Sun, and scientists are convinced that the water in them must have evaporated. However, a new study contradicts this theory.
Iris has a diameter of 199 km, making it larger than 99 percent of other asteroids. It orbits the Sun in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter at an average distance of 2.39 astronomical units, completing one revolution every 3.7 years.
Masalia has a diameter of 135 km and an orbit similar to that of Iris.
Asteroids in the solar system are quite different in composition and structure. Closer to the Sun, silicon asteroids, without ice, dominate, and further away – icy.
Scientists hope that studying the distribution of asteroids will help understand the composition and movement of elements in the solar system before planets and asteroids formed. Their prevalence in exoplanetary systems and the possibility of extraterrestrial life will also become clear.
It is noted that this is not the first study. In October 2020, SOFIA discovered water on the Moon. Using the Faint Object Infrared Camera (FORCAST), water molecules equivalent to about 350 milliliters of water per cubic meter of surface soil were detected.
It was previously reported that the Hubble telescope discovered a star-forming region known as IRAS 16562-3959.
Source: korrespondent
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