Two of Neptune’s tiny inner moons contain clay minerals that could not have formed on worlds so small and cold — suggesting they’re built from the exposed interiors of much larger moons shattered when the captured Kuiper Belt world Triton tore through Neptune’s original satellite system billions of years ago.

Webb's clay signature on Larissa and Galatea links today's small moons to warm, water-altered interiors inside a much larger satellite generation destroyed long ago. The post Two of Neptune’s tiny inner moons contain clay minerals that could not have formed on worlds so small and cold — suggesting they’re built from the exposed interiors of much larger moons shattered when the captured Kuiper Belt…