This comet could help answer why Earth looks like a “blue marble”

How did Earth gain water? And could it exist on faraway planets, too?

Comet 238P/Read is a strange rock. Its location just past Mars in the main asteroid belt is an unusual spot for a comet in our Solar System. And it’s missing frozen carbon dioxide, frequently found on comets. Comet Read’s most compelling quirk, however, is that it definitely has water.

In a new study published Monday in the journal Nature, astronomers directed the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or Webb) to study Comet 238P/Read using its Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec). This instrument is one-fourth the science arsenal of the telescope, and is designed to help scientists take apart information contained within the light of an object to learn more about what it’s made of. The composition of this cometary oddity, and others like it, may reveal one of the Universe’s biggest secrets. READ MORE from Inverse