A Cosmic Catastrophe May Have Turned Neptune’s Ancient Moons Inside Out

This image of the Neptune system, captured by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in 2022, reveals stunning views of the planet’s rings—which have not been seen with this clarity in more than three decades—along with the planet’s inner moons. Credit: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Naomi Rowe-Gurney (NASA-GSFC) Neptune’s tiny moons may be ancient wreckage, preserving material exposed when a catastrophic event shattered much larger icy worlds. In 1989, Voyager 2 discovered six previously unknown moons around Neptune. Five of them are tiny satellites that travel just beyond the planet’s...