James Webb Space Telescope found water ice in the rings of a distant asteroid

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) paved the way for a new era of astronomy with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which is the most powerful telescope ever launched into space. James Webb captured stunning details of space, sharing mesmerising photos of the cosmic cliffs of a stellar nursery, a quintet of galaxies bound in a celestial dance, and more.

Now, NASA said that James Webb's recent observations revealed that the spectacular rings surrounding asteroid Chariklo are home to water ice.

The asteroid Chariklo was originally discovered in 1997. Reports have mentioned that it is not possible for any current space telescopes to properly observe it or take images of it because it is quite far away. According to NASA, Chariklo is the largest of the known Centaur population and is located more than two billion miles away beyond the orbit of Saturn.

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After its discovery in 1997, astronomers found the rings later in 2013. Using ground-based telescopes, experts discovered that Chariklo hosts a system of two thin rings. But the powerful James Webb telescope has now gathered more details.

During a phenomenon known as an occultation, astronomers were able to use the telescope to inspect the asteroid. Occultation means when a star or planet moves behind another.

In its blog published on January 25, NASA said that the rings are "probably composed of small particles of water ice mixed with dark material, debris from an icy body that collided with Chariklo in the past".

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NASA said that by "remarkable good luck, we discovered that Chariklo was on track for just such an occultation event in October 2022". It explained that this was the first stellar occultation attempted with the Webb telescope and a lot of hard work went into identifying and refining the predictions for this unusual event.

The space agency further explained that Chariklo is too small and too far away for even Webb to directly image the rings separated from the main body. It said that occultations are the only tool to characterise the rings by themselves.

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