All articles tagged with #phyllosilicates
JWST spectra of Neptune’s inner moons (Proteus, Larissa, Galatea) and rings show hydrated minerals and clay‑bearing material, supporting a history in which Triton was captured from the outer solar system, disrupted Neptune’s original moon system, and left debris that reassembled into the inner moons and rings; Nereid may be the lone intact survivor. The scenario is inferential and could be tested by a future Neptune orbiter.
NASA’s JWST detected magnesium-rich phyllosilicates on Neptune’s tiny inner moons Larissa and Galatea and on its rings, a hydrated mineral signature formed by liquid water. The small, cold moons could not have heated enough to create these minerals, implying they inherited them from much larger, differentiated icy satellites that were shattered when Neptune captured Triton. Fragments from that primordial system likely remain as the current inner moons and rings, with Nereid possibly a surviving member; the researchers note alternate scenarios and call for more simulations and spectra to confirm the history.
JWST observations detect magnesium-rich phyllosilicates on Neptune’s inner moons Larissa and Galatea, implying subsurface ice and past interior heating before their destruction, while Proteus lacks these minerals; a proposed scenario suggests Neptune’s original moon system was destroyed by Triton’s capture, scattering materials into a debris disk that formed rings and current moons, with an unidentified hydrated mineral common to all three moons and an alternative hypothesis that it came from a tidally disrupted Kuiper Belt object.
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft’s April 2025 flyby of the bi-lobed inner-belt asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson (DJ) revealed iron‑bearing phyllosilicates indicating past liquid water and suggested DJ originated from a larger parent body that fractured about 155 million years ago; the findings, published in Science, help explain how water and organics were distributed in the early solar system as Lucy continues toward six Jupiter Trojan targets.
NASA’s Lucy spacecraft captured Donaldjohanson during a 2025 flyby, revealing a peanut-shaped, cratered asteroid about 8 km by 3.5 km that likely formed when a 80 km parent body shattered ~155 million years ago, placing it in the Erigone family. Its two-lobed shape, crater pattern, and recent surface-reset hints (smaller craters erased) support a violent origin with seismic reshaping, while iron-bearing phyllosilicates indicate past liquid water. The findings help constrain how near-Earth asteroids and the solar system evolved, and Lucy heads to the Trojan asteroids in 2027.