NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Detects Smallest Asteroid Ever

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has detected an asteroid that is anything between 300 to 650 feet in length, making it the smallest object ever discovered by the Webb Telescope. Dubbed as an “interloping” asteroid, it is located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. This discovery was made a team of European scientists using the Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) data. Although current models anticipate the presence of asteroids of all sizes, small asteroids have received less attention than larger ones due to the challenge of observing them. With future-focused observations using the Webb, astronomers will be able to examine asteroids smaller than 1 kilometer. The result of the Webb Telescope suggests a great contribution to the detection of the new asteroid. An asteroid is a rocky airless remnant left over from the early formation of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. Most asteroids can be found orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter within the main asteroid belt.