Reuters Science News Summary

Researchers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have found evidence of a catastrophic event in Neptune's moons and rings, likely caused by a Pluto-sized object billions of years ago.

Following is a summary ​of current ​science news briefs.

Webb ‌telescope finds ​signs of ancient disaster for Neptune's moons

New observations ‌of some of Neptune's moons and rings are providing evidence of a catastrophe that ‌occurred billions of years ago around the ‌solar system's outermost planet in which a Pluto-sized interloper caused a celestial demolition derby. Researchers used ⁠NASA's ​James Webb ⁠Space Telescope to examine the composition of three ⁠of Neptune's small inner moons — Proteus, Larissa and ​Galatea — and its inner dusty rings, and detected ⁠clay minerals that one might expect to ⁠find ​deep inside certain worlds in the outer reaches of the solar ⁠system. These magnesium-rich minerals are known to exist on ⁠the ⁠dwarf planet Ceres, which orbits in the main asteroid belt between ‌Mars ‌and Jupiter, and in ​some meteorites.