Unexpected find in outskirts of our solar system

 Webb telescope makes unexpected find in outskirts of our solar system

The NASA James Webb telescope is the largest, most powerful telescope ever launched into space. James Webb telescope makes unexpected find that could point to life on outskirts of our solar system. On the edges of our solar system could be something fascinating. Just beyond the orbit of Neptune, the eighth and final planet from the Sun now that Pluto doesn't count, lies a ring of frozen objects. This is known as the Kuiper belt, essentially a big disc in our outer solar system which is 20 times as wide and could have up to 200 times the mass of the asteroid belt which occupies the space between Mars and Jupiter.

In our solar system's proverbial "no man's land," a deep space realm beyond the planets, scientists detected unexpected activity. This remote area, inhabited by ice-clad worlds like Pluto (a dwarf planet), a donut-shaped region surrounding much of our solar system. It's a relatively little known place, but millions of frozen, "dead" objects are thought to orbit there. Now, astronomers pointed the powerful James Webb Space Telescope at some of these icy objects, and found evidence that they're not so dead after all.

It mostly contains smaller bodies from when our solar system was first created, much like our asteroid belt, but while the asteroids are mostly made of rocks and metals the objects in the Kuiper belt mostly comprise of frozen substances such as methane, ammonia and water. Also part of the Kuiper belt is Pluto, a dwarf planet which used to be classed as a regular planet until experts decided it no longer met the criteria. At the centre of our solar system is our Sun, then four planets, then an asteroid belt, then four planets, then the Kuiper belt. These frozen objects sit on the edge of our solar system in the Kuiper belt. "We see some interesting signs of hot times in cool places," Christopher Glein, a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute who researches icy worlds, said. Glein, who previously conducted research into Saturn's geyser-shooting moon, Enceladus, led this new investigation into the Kuiper Belt objects. The scientists trained the Webb telescope, which orbits 1 million miles from Earth, on the two largest-known Kuiper Belt objects — Eris and Makemake. This instrument is fitted with specialized cameras which can detect different types of elements or molecules (like water or carbon dioxide) on distant worlds.

What they found was a surprise: The icy orbs and objects of the Kuiper Belt are thought to be preserved, primordial relics of the early solar system. But the frozen methane identified on the surfaces of Eris and Makemake (respectively located, on average, well over 6 and 4 billion miles away) show these molecules were more recently "cooked up," Glein explained. This suggests hot interiors beneath these icy crusts, capable of propelling liquid or gas onto the surface. The relatively recent methane deposits also suggest that these worlds could potentially even harbour oceans. "Hot cores could also point to potential sources of liquid water beneath their icy surfaces," Glein explained. As for what's been discovered in there, thanks to the incredible spotting power of the James Webb space telescope we've been taking a look at some of these frozen objects in space. A new study suggests that using the power of the telescope experts were able to discover these dead, frozen things on the edge of our solar system are not quite as dead as we previously thought.

The telescope looked at frozen methane on the surface of these dwarf planets and found they'd recently been 'cooked up' as study lead Dr Christopher Glein of the Southwest Research Institute put it. This discovery was made by the James Webb telescope. What that means is that there could be hotter interiors to the planets which could propel liquids or gas to the frozen surface. That could even potentially mean the dwarf planets in the Kuiper belt may have oceans beneath the surface, which wouldn't be unheard of as Jupiter's moon Europa has just such a feature. These objects once previously thought dead, frozen and empty could in fact be 'living' dwarf planets with activity going on. It mostly contains smaller bodies from when our solar system was first created, much like our asteroid belt, but while the asteroids are mostly made of rocks and metals the objects in the Kuiper belt mostly comprise of frozen substances such as methane, ammonia and water.

The telescope, which orbits a million miles from Earth, looked at dwarf planets Eris (which is smaller than Pluto but has more mass) and Makemake, which are between four and six billion miles away from Earth. It's even in the realm of possibility that some of these frozen worlds — billions of miles away — could harbour conditions suitable for life to potentially develop — though there's certainly no evidence of that yet. Perhaps a mission to these cosmic frontiers is due. After all, NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto (and beyond) revealed a complex world with a diverse topography, including glaciers and mountains made of water ice. Of course being so far away there's not much we can do about that right now beyond having a look. "After the New Horizons flyby of the Pluto system, and with this discovery, the Kuiper Belt is turning out to be much more alive in terms of hosting dynamic worlds than we would have imagined," said Glein. "It’s not too early to start thinking about sending a spacecraft to fly by another one of these bodies to place the JWST data into a geologic context. I believe that we will be stunned by the wonders that await!"

The Webb telescope, a scientific collaboration between NASA, the ESA, and the Canadian Space Agency, is designed to peer into the deepest cosmos and reveal new insights about the early universe. But it's also peering at intriguing planets in our galaxy, along with the planets and moons in our solar system. - Giant mirror: Webb's mirror, which captures light, is over 21 feet across. That's over two-and-a-half times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope's mirror. Capturing more light allows Webb to see more distant, ancient objects. As described above, the telescope is peering at stars and galaxies that formed over 13 billion years ago.