It will be a year in a few days ever since the James Webb Space Telescope took its first images (well, its first final images, because they previously showed us some evidence. SMACS 0723, WASP-96b, the Southern Ring Nebula (NGC 3132), Stephan’s Quintet, and the Carina Nebula have left us speechless and fascinated by all that these new eyes can show us, profusely observing all that surrounds us.

Although it has been said on many occasions that James Webb’s main focus is observe far, in space and time, this does not mean that it is not capable of exploring our own solar system as well and providing us with very useful information and images for the scientific community that are also very visually appealing. For example, when he was on duty for only one day, he already showed us two images of Jupiter taken with NIRCam at two different wavelengths.

Since then, the space observatory he continued to occasionally set his sights on other planets in our solar system, which were interspersed with observations from a much greater distance, such as when he brought us closer to the process of exoplanet formation, the prelude to a supernova or, what many will surely remember most, the new and impressive vision of The Pillars of Creation. Even for the most astronomy savvy, these are undoubtedly impressive images.

Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Matthew Tiscareno (SETI Institute), Matthew Hedman (University of Idaho), Maryame El Moutamid (Cornell University), Mark Showalter (SETI Institute), Leigh Fletcher (University of Leicester), Heidi Hammel ( AURA)

So, James Webb has taken another close look and offered us a capture that reveals the structure of Saturn’s rings. The image was taken late last month as part of the 1247 telescope observing program and, like Jupiter, this image was also taken with the NIRCam (Near Infrared Camera). and as you can see, unlike other captures of the planet, Saturn looks much darker in this one.

The reason is that several very deep exposures were made, specifically planned to test the telescope’s ability to detect the faint moons around the planet as well as its bright rings. And the difference from the images we’ve seen so far is evident, as this one clearly shows the details inside the planet’s ring system. It’s not a complete picture because some of the fainter rings are missing, such as the thin G ring and the diffuse E ring, which are not shown in this image but can be seen in deeper exposures.