A new instrument, CUBES (Cassegrain U-Band Efficient Spectrograph) has just been approved for construction and eventual installation on ESO‘s VLT (Very Large Telescope). Why is this blog-able? One of the goals- an explicit goal- is to search for asteroid water:
cubes.inaf.it/science-1
cubes.inaf.it/science-1/solar-system
By “U-band”, the project staff indicate their mission to observe in the ultraviolet, out to the very limit that Earth’s atmosphere will allow. Fortunately, this limit includes 308 nm, a spectral line of water (or specifically, hydroxyl, OH, produced by breakdown of water when the Sun’s ultraviolet hits it). ESO astronomers will (among other things, of course) be searching Main-Belt comets and other asteroids for water at much higher sensitivities than before, given 8.2 meters of telescope aperture.
Details… detailed details:
Covino, S. Cristiani, S. Alcalá, J. M. et al. 2023 CUBES: a UV spectrograph for the future Mem. S. A. It. vol 75 p. 282 10.36116/MEMSAIT_94N2.2023.281
Opitom, C. Snodgrass, C. La Forgia, F. et al. 2023 Cometary science with CUBES Exp. Ast. vol 55 #1 p. 59 10.1007/s10686-022-09853-w