Webb telescope finds signs of ancient disaster for Neptune's moons
New observations from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope reveal that Neptune's inner moons and rings contain clay minerals formed in liquid water, suggesting a catastrophic event billions of years ago. The likely culprit is Triton, a captured Kuiper Belt object whose gravity disrupted Neptune's original moons, causing collisions that formed the current system. This study offers a rare glimpse into the interiors of large icy moons, which are usually hidden.
It's a vivid example of how a single random event can fundamentally alter a planetary system's architecture.
- prewett
> Neptune's inner moons may be the only place in the solar system where we can directly observe that material [from the insides of a past moon]
Clearly this means that we need a Neptune orbiter mission! And soon, I'm not getting any younger and I want to see it.
- NegativeLatency
Original paper if you want to skip the news sumamry: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aeb1437
- ck2
I am so stupid-excited for Nancy Grace Roman launch just a few weeks, surprised no posts yet
it's not a competition but JWST almost pales to the state-of-the-art tech (because JWST was held up for so many years budget-wise)
28mbps downlink vs 500mbps from a MILLION MILES AWAY, 1.5TB per day download
imagine what new they will discover with it