For the first time, scientists combined the power of NASA’s Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes to study some of the most distant objects in our solar system—Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs). They found fewer small TNOs than expected and discovered that their colors follow the same patterns seen in larger objects.
Scientists are using the combined capabilities of NASA's Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes to study Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs). By analyzing these ancient, frozen relics orbiting beyond Neptune, researchers are gaining critical insights into the composition and formation of the early solar system from over 4.5 billion years ago.
The outer solar system is home to some of the oldest objects in existence.
These tiny, frozen worlds have spent billions of years orbiting in darkness,
largely untouched since the planets first formed.
Now, by combining the power of NASA's Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes,
scientists are uncovering new clues about the earliest days of our solar system
by studying these frozen worlds called Trans-Neptunian Objects, or TNOs.
TNOs orbit the Sun beyond Neptune.
They are surviving relics from the solar system's formation more than 4.5 billion years ago.
As dust, rock, and ice collided, they gradually grew into larger bodies known as planetesimals.
Closer to the Sun, this process produced the planets,
but far beyond Neptune, countless small icy bodies remained.
To study them, astronomers combined Hubble's observations in visible light
with Webb's observations in infrared,
providing a more complete picture of their sizes, orbits, and surface compositions.
With 27 previously unknown objects discovered,
including some of the smallest directly observed,
the survey became the deepest search for Trans-Neptunian Objects ever conducted.
Scientists expected these tiny worlds to look very different from larger TNOs.
Over billions of years, collisions should have broken many apart and altered their surfaces.
Instead, the smallest objects closely resemble their much larger neighbors.
Their colors, which provide information about their surface composition,
follow the same patterns seen among larger TNOs.
That suggests these tiny worlds have preserved
much of their original surface composition for billions of years,
and that collisions may have been less destructive, or less common, than expected.
Researchers also found fewer very small TNOs than some models predict,
providing another clue about how the earliest building blocks of planets formed.
Together, Hubble and Webb are giving scientists a new look
at some of our solar system's oldest survivors,
helping them uncover how the planets, including Earth,
first began to form.
