Super telescope finds unbelievable thing flying between Mars and Jupiter

The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered an unusual asteroid right in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

According to Science Alert , the new discovery is an asteroid with a diameter of only 100 to 200m , previously unknown and one of the smallest objects that space telescopes have "picked up" in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Astronomer Thomas Müller from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany said it was a completely unexpected discovery, suggesting that many new objects previously invisible to humans could be discovered by James Webb.

An illustration depicting a "wanderer" in the asteroid belt - (Photo: N. Bartmann/ESA/Webb, ESO/M. Kornmesser and S. Brunier, N. Risinger)

The team initially used James Webb data to search for a much larger asteroid in the Main Belt — a belt of space rocks of various sizes that wander between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter — called (10929) 198 BC1 , discovered in 1998 and measuring 15.7km in diameter.

The observation was intended to study the asteroid more closely, but failed because James Webb was not pointed correctly at it, causing the target image to be blown out.

But the team did pick up another treasure: the tiny new asteroid. It would have been impossible to find something this small before. Similar-sized ones that have passed much closer to Earth were sometimes only discovered days before their approach.

So this shows that James Webb has great potential in studying new asteroids, as well as in Earth defense missions.

Researchers are still working to learn more before officially confirming and naming the newly found tiny asteroid, but initial results have been published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

James Webb is the world's most powerful space telescope, set to launch in 2022. It is built and operated primarily by NASA, in collaboration with ESA and CSA (the European and Canadian space agencies).