13 papers
JWST Spatial-Spectral Mapping of Green Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF)
Stefanie N. Milam, Nathan X. Roth, Geronimo L. Villanueva +9
We report a survey of molecular emission from cometary volatiles using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) toward Oort cloud comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) carried out on UT 2023 February…
Coma Physics of an Interstellar Object: JWST Spatial-Spectral Mapping of 3I/ATLAS
Nathan X. Roth, Martin A. Cordiner, Stefanie N. Milam +17
We report a survey of molecular emission from cometary volatiles using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) toward interstellar object 3I/ATLAS carried out on UT 2025 December 22…
JWST Observations of Asteroid 2024 YR4 Rule Out a 2032 Lunar Impact and Demonstrate a New Regime for Planetary Defense Follow-up
Julien de Wit, Andrew S. Rivkin, Marco Micheli +12
At the end of its discovery apparition, the 60 m near-Earth object 2024 YR4 was associated with a non-zero probability of lunar impact during its 2032 December 22 close appro…
Characterization of the Volatile Properties of 133P/Elst-Pizarro and Other Main-Belt Comets with JWST and Ground-Based Observations
Henry H. Hsieh, John W. Noonan, Michael S. P. Kelley +10
We report results from an analysis of the volatile composition and evolution of main-belt comet (MBC) 133P/Elst-Pizarro using JWST NIRSpec and NIRCam observations and ground-based…
Emerging Diversity Among the Main-Belt Comets: Insights from JWST and Ground-Based Observations of 457P/Lemmon-PANSTARRS
John W. Noonan, Henry H. Hsieh, Michael S. P. Kelley +10
We present JWST NIRSpec and NIRCam observations of 457P/Lemmon-PANSTARRS, a main-belt comet that displayed activity around its 2020 perihelion and that was observed to regain activ…
An Enriched Methane D/H Ratio in the Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS
Nathan X. Roth, Martin Cordiner, Stefanie Milam +15
Interstellar objects are interlopers from other planetary systems, and their volatile compositions provide a glimpse into planet formation around their host star. We present near-i…