{"paper":{"title":"JWST reveals anomalously enhanced methane outgassing from below Chiron's water ice and carbon dioxide bearing surface","license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":[],"primary_cat":"astro-ph.EP","authors_text":"Ana Carolina de Souza Feliciano, Aur\\'elie Guilbert-Lepoutre, Bryan Holler, Estela Fern\\'andez-Valenzuela, Geronimo L. Villanueva, Ian Wong, Joshua P. Emery, Noem\\'i Pinilla-Alonso, Rosario Brunetto, Silvia Protopapa","submitted_at":"2026-05-21T21:05:41Z","abstract_excerpt":"Centaurs are inward-scattered Kuiper belt objects, with some exhibiting comet-like activity. The physical mechanisms powering this activity remain poorly understood, with carbon monoxide (CO) sublimation or the crystallization of amorphous water ice commonly invoked as the dominant drivers. Here we present high-resolution JWST spectroscopy of 2060 Chiron, one of the largest known Centaurs, revealing methane and carbon dioxide gas emission with distinct coma spatial morphologies and production rates of $Q_{\\rm CH_4}=(1.55\\pm0.04)\\times10^{27}$ molecules s$^{-1}$ and $Q_{\\rm CO_2}=(1.01\\pm0.06)\\"},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"2605.23038","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2605.23038/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[],"snapshot_sha256":"c28c3603d3b5d939e8dc4c7e95fa8dfce3d595e45f758748cecf8e644a296938"},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}