An unexpectedly vast population of the smallest asteroids ever seen in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter have been discovered by astronomers analysing archival images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
The discovery is likely to lead to better tracking of the tiny but powerful space rocks that may approach Earth, reported Live Science.
Asteroids that have been found recently range in size from that of a bus to several stadiums. It means that they are tiny as compared to the massive space rock that wiped out most dinosaurs, however, they nevertheless pack a significant punch.
Just a decade ago, an asteroid just tens of metres in size took everyone by surprise when it exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia. It released 30 times more energy than the atomic bomb detonated over Hiroshima in WWII.
These asteroids that are called “decametre” collide with Earth 10,000 times more frequently than their larger counterparts. However, their small size makes it challenging for surveys to detect them in advance.
Moreover, a team of astronomers including Julien de Wit, an associate professor of planetary science at MIT, has been testing a computationally-intensive method, in recent years, to identify passing asteroids in telescope images of faraway stars.
The researchers found eight previously known and 138 new decametre asteroids in the main asteroid belt by applying this method to thousands of JWST images of the host star in about 40 light-years distant TRAPPIST-1 system. It has been deemed the best-studied planetary system beyond our own.