Webb telescope finds signs of ancient disaster for Neptune’s moons

August 4, 2026 1:32 PM

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 cert...

Firefly Sparkle galaxy offers a taste of the infant Milky Way

December 12, 2024 5:01 PM

Firefly Sparkle galaxy offers a taste of the infant Milky Way

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has spotted a young galaxy dating to the early universe - called Firefly Sparkle because its gleaming star clusters resemble the bioluminescent bugs - in a discovery that is giving astronomers a peek at what our Milky Way may have looked like in its infancy. Researchers said the galaxy, still in the process of assembling, dates to when the universe was roughly 5% of its current age, about 600 million years after the Big Bang event that initiated the cosmos. It ...