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...

Webb telescope reveals rapid growth of primordial black hole

November 6, 2024 12:31 PM

Webb telescope reveals rapid growth of primordial black hole

At the heart of our Milky Way galaxy lurks a supermassive black hole about four million times the mass of the sun, called Sagittarius A*. In fact, these objects, which increase in mass over time by eating material that wanders too close, reside at the center of most galaxies. But since NASA's James Webb Space Telescope came online in 2022, astronomers have been surprised to find supermassive black holes inhabiting the early universe - earlier than they had thought possible considering the time ...