Digital Illustration of Asteroid Near Earth

NASA’s James Webb Telescope Discovers Colosseum-Sized Asteroid

While capturing breathtaking images of space, NASA‘s James Webb Telescope was photobombed by a previously unknown 300-650 foot asteroid, roughly the size of Rome’s Colosseum. While this may seem an enormous size, it’s actually JWST’s small cosmic object spotted to date.

A team of European astronomers made the amazing discovery within the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. As of now, details about the asteroid largely remain a mystery. Future studies, however, will help to shed more light on the “tiny” space rock.

The donut shaped belt houses most of the asteroids in our Solar System. It’s also in close alignment with the ecliptic plane – the same plane that includes Earth’s orbit around the Sun.

Asteroids this small are rarely discovered by astronomers, as they’re incredibly difficult to observe due to their relatively minute size. Because of this, it’s even more interesting that the scientists weren’t even looking for asteroids in their Webb research. The discovery was the result of pure chance.

Using the JWST, scientists focused its Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) on the main asteroid belt to take calibration images. It was during this photo session that the colosseum-sized asteroid flew past.

“We — completely unexpectedly — detected a small asteroid in publicly available MIRI calibration observations,” astronomer Thomas Müller told NASA. “The measurements are some of the first MIRI measurements targeting the ecliptic plane and our work suggests that many new objects will be detected with this instrument.”

Webb Telescope Research Considered a ‘Failed’ Observation, Despite Asteroid Discovery

Since the start of our long history of space exploration and research, scientists have identified more than 1.1 million asteroids. Many of these pieces of ancient space debris, however, remain unknown to this day. The small space rock discovered by the JWST points to the possibility of even more small objects flying through the universe under the radar.

Despite this discovery, however, the images taken of the asteroid belt didn’t turn out quite right. The object was too bright, making the research a technical failure.

That said, the new asteroid’s unexpected photobombing of the images marked a positive development. To NASA scientists, it just goes to show that no mission is a total failure.

“Our results show that even ‘failed’ Webb observations can be scientifically useful, if you have the right mindset and a little bit of luck,” Müller said. “Our detection lies in the main asteroid belt, but Webb’s incredible sensitivity made it possible to see this roughly 100-meter object at a distance of more than 100 million kilometers.”

Now that they know the colosseum-sized rock is roaming the Solar System, scientists feel even more confident that the Webb Telescope will detect more space rocks in the future.

“This is a fantastic result which highlights the capabilities of MIRI to serendipitously detect a previously undetectable size of asteroid in the main belt. Repeats of these observations are in the process of being scheduled,” said Bryan Holler, a JWST support scientist. “And we are fully expecting new asteroid interlopers in those images!”