Objects around Jupiter?

[MarkB]

Looking at the first image from:

https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/07...and-more-now-available-in-commissioning-data/

and zooming in, I see ~100 objects, especially over the bright middle section, that look like asteroids.

Are they pieces of rock or something else?

 

[Wolfshadw]

I'd guess unresolved pixels.

-Wolf sends

 

[Helio]

I'd guess unresolved pixels.

Agreed. Compare the fuzziness of that moon shadow to the sharpness of those tiny “artifacts”.

 

[Catastrophe]

Interesting to compare numbers of Trojan asteroids sharing Jupiter's orbit (objects > 1 km diameter.

In total, Uehata calculates that there are about 260,000 Trojan asteroids bigger than 1 km trapped in Jupiter's L4 and L5 Lagrangian regions – roughly 10 times fewer than there are in the main asteroid belt.14 Jun 2022

Examining Jupiter's Trojan asteroids

We could breakdown asteroid types for comparison.

Carbonaceous asteroids, as their name suggests, are carbon-rich. They dominate the asteroid belt's outer regions.[58] Together they comprise over 75% of the visible asteroids.

S-type (silicate-rich) asteroids are more common toward the inner region of the belt, within 2.5 AU of the Sun. . . . . . . They have a relatively high albedo and form about 17% of the total asteroid population.

M-type (metal-rich) asteroids form about 10% of the total population; . . . . . . Within the asteroid belt, the number distribution of M-type asteroids peaks at a semimajor axis of about 2.7 AU.

and

Spectroscopically, the Jupiter trojans mostly are D-type asteroids, which predominate in the outer regions of the asteroid belt.

D-type asteroids have a very low albedo and a featureless reddish spectrum.[1] It has been suggested that they have a composition of organic-rich silicates, carbon and anhydrous silicates, possibly with water ice in their interiors.[citation needed] D-type asteroids are found in the outer asteroid belt and beyond; examples are 152 Atala, and 944 Hidalgo as well as the majority of Jupiter trojans.

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