Similar to the Ancient Greek mythological creature of the same name, centaurs in astronomy are in an in-between dynamical phase: leaving their distant and stable orbits beyond Neptune and migrating to the inner solar system, while also entering an active cometary phase. Being stored for billions of years in the freezing confines of the outer solar system, they preserve key insights about the birth of our solar system, which are uniquely revealed as they slowly start to unfreeze in this transient stage.

Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a team of astronomers observed Centaur 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1, one of the most active and intriguing objects in the outer solar system. The high degree of detail captured by the telescope led to the discovery of new, previously unknown jets of gas, which is helping inform theories about how centaurs and planets are formed.