00:03Water is one of the main life-giving compounds we know of in the universe.
00:07And while we've found it in myriad places out on the cosmos in the form of ice,
00:11finding it in its liquid or gas form is far more rare.
00:14But now, using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered water vapor in an unlikely place,
00:20the main belt asteroid field, between Mars and Jupiter.
00:23This is a photo experts say shows water vapor coming off of comet 238P-REED.
00:29Experts say this is an unlikely place for water vapor,
00:32as they thought it was too close to the sun to still have any water vapor left.
00:35Most comets enter a closer orbit with the sun in massive parabolic arcs,
00:39coming close only for a short period of time.
00:42Comet 238P-REED, however, orbits the sun closely for its entire transit,
00:46meaning all of its vapor should have been sucked away by now.
00:49Experts say water sublimation is likely to blame for a lot of the activity in the main belt,
00:53but they can never find direct evidence until this,
00:56adding that this is further evidence that objects within the belt of asteroids
00:59could have been at least partly responsible for bringing water to Earth billions of years ago.
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