Overview of Water-Ice in Asteroids—Targets of a Revolution by LSST and JWST

Water-ice occurs inside many minor bodies almost throughout the Solar System. To have an overview of the inventory of water-ice in asteroids, beside the general characteristics of their activity, examples are presented with details, including the Hilda zone and among the Trojans. There might be several extinct comets among the asteroids with only internal ice content, demonstrating the complex evolution of such bodies. To evaluate the formation of ice-hosting small objects, their migration and retention capacity by a surface covering dust layer are also overviewed to provide a complex picture of volatile occurrences. This review aims to support further work and search for sublimation-induced activity of asteroids by future missions and telescopic surveys. Based on the observed and hypothesized occurrence and characteristics of icy asteroids, future observation-related estimations were made regarding the low limiting magnitude future survey of LSST/Vera Rubin and also the infrared ice identification by the James Webb space telescope. According to these estimations, there is a high probability of mapping the distribution of ice in the asteroid belt over the next decade.