6 papers
A JWST Study of Stardust. I. Infrared Spectroscopy of Comet 81P/Wild 2 and Overall Composition
Nathan X. Roth, Stefanie N. Milam, Diane H. Wooden +11
We report observations of comet 81P/Wild 2, target of the Stardust sample return mission, on UT 2023 March 20 and 24 at a heliocentric distance () of 1.85 au using the NIRSpec…
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 and Gemini Observations of the Active Centaur 450P/LONEOS: Nucleus and Coma Characterizations
Charles A. Schambeau, Michael S. P. Kelley, Maria Womack +16
Between 2019 and 2024, we used the Gemini-N and JWST observatories to conduct a detailed case study of the active Centaur 450P/LONEOS, whose orbit was significantly altered by a cl…
JWST reveals anomalously enhanced methane outgassing from below Chiron's water ice and carbon dioxide bearing surface
Ian Wong, Silvia Protopapa, Aurélie Guilbert-Lepoutre +7
Centaurs are inward-scattered Kuiper belt objects, with some exhibiting comet-like activity. The physical mechanisms powering this activity remain poorly understood, with carbon mo…
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…
Isotopic Evidence for a Cold and Distant Origin of the Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS
Martin Cordiner, Nathan X. Roth, Marco Micheli +16
Interstellar objects provide the only directly observable samples of icy planetesimals formed around other stars, and can therefore provide insight into the diversity of physical a…