NASA's Webb to Unlock the Mysteries of Comets and the Early Solar System

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NASA's Webb to Unlock the Mysteries of Comets and the Early Solar System

Release date: September 25, 2019

Astronomers to study three different types of comets

Though no longer thought of as harbingers of doom, comets are still mysterious. Scientists using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope plan to unlock some of those mysteries when they study three different types of comets to learn more about them and about the early solar system. Astronomers are already somewhat familiar with two of the comets—Read and Borrelly. The third is a "target-of-opportunity," one that is not yet known but is expected to be discovered in the first year of Webb's mission. If they are lucky, perhaps they will capture an interstellar comet. Or perhaps they will train Webb on a comet from the Oort Cloud, a spherical cloud of icy bodies surrounding our solar system.

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Find additional articles, images, and videos at WebbTelescope.org.

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute's Office of Public Outreach.

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