Asteroids from the edge of the solar system move between Mars and Jupiter
Researchers have discovered two objects in an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter that appear to originate from the edge of our solar system. But that needs to be investigated more closely.
Basically, the two asteroids (203) Pompeja and (269) Justitia are not new and have been known to research for a long time. In recent spectroscopic examinations, it fell a research group of the Japanese space agency JAXA However, on the fact that the two celestial bodies have a significantly redder color than all other rocks in the asteroid belt investigated.
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Intense red indicates Trans-Neptunian origin
So far, Sunao Hasegawa’s team has only known such intense red from trans-Neptunian objects such as Arrokoth, which the NASA probe New Horizons had passed in 2019. Objects that orbit the sun behind the orbit of the outermost planet Neptune are referred to as trans-Neptunian. This also explains why the find is so exciting for the researchers.
The asteroid belt in which the two boulders orbit lies, namely between Mars and Jupiter, in the transition between the inner and outer solar system. The area can be reached much faster with probes than the regions of the so-called Kuiper Belt outside of Neptune’s orbit.
This is where NASA’s New Horizons probe set out more than 15 years ago. It had taken her ten years of that to travel past Neptune. Mars, on the other hand, could be reached in a few months and Jupiter still in under two years. Somewhere in between lies the asteroid belt with the trans-Neptunian-looking celestial bodies. The time savings that can be achieved would be immense.
Further analysis is necessary
The problem: Although the red color indicates Trans-Neptunian origin, it is by no means certain. The one in the trade magazine The Astrophysical Journal Letters The published results of the spectroscopic investigations suggest that there are complex, non-biological organic compounds on the surface of the asteroids, but only samples of the surfaces can confirm this. For the time being, further analyzes are to be attempted to further increase the probability of the Trans-Neptunian origin.
Should the suspicion be confirmed, the research would not only have saved the time already mentioned. Answers to previously unanswered questions could also emerge, such as how certain compounds came to earth, even though they could only be bound at a great distance from it. If the asteroids were hurled inward in the course of the formation of the solar system, they could provide new insights into its turbulent formation phase.
