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takyon writes:

The first carbon-rich asteroid found in the Kuiper Belt

It's believed that our solar system's gas giants caused quite a ruckus in their infancies. As they exited their tight orbits and began their outward migrations, their forceful journeys caused small, rocky bodies in the inner solar system to be ejected from their homes, with some making their way all the way out to the Kuiper Belt — an thick and extended ring of comets, asteroids, and other small objects that surrounds the outer solar system. However, due to the billions of miles that lie between Earth and the Kuiper Belt, identifying an inner solar system asteroid in our icy outskirts was far from easy. But now, an international team of astronomers has discovered Kuiper Belt Object 2004 EW95 — a carbon-rich asteroid that supports our gas giants' destructive tendencies.

[...] But the research team was able to overcome the obstacles and identify clear signatures of carbon, iron oxides, and phyllosilicates (sheets of silicate minerals), all of which are elements commonly found in the inner solar system that had never been identified in a Kuiper Belt object. From the chemical breakdown, the researchers were able to conclude that Kuiper Belt Object 2004 EW95 was likely born in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and made the long journey outward alongside our gas giants.

(120216) 2004 EW₉₅.

Also at ESO.

2004 EW₉₅: A Phyllosilicate-bearing Carbonaceous Asteroid in the Kuiper Belt (open, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aab3dc) (DX) (Caltech) (arXiv)

Original Submission