Brand new space telescope NASA’s James Webb captured the clearest image of its rings Neptune For over 30 years, it’s been revealing the ice giant from a new perspective.

Most striking in Webb’s new image is the sharp image of Neptune’s rings, some of which have not been seen since NASA’s Voyager 2 became the first spacecraft to observe Neptune. flight in 1989. In addition to a few narrow, bright rings, Webb’s image clearly shows Neptune’s paler dust lanes.

“It’s been three years since we last saw these dim rings and dusty. “This is the first time we’ve seen them in infrared,” Neptune systems expert Heidi Hammel said in a statement. Webb’s extremely stable and sensitive image quality makes it possible to detect these very faint rings very close to Neptune.

blue Planet

Neptune has fascinated researchers since its discovery in 1846. Located 30 times further from the sun Like Earth, Neptune orbits in the far and dark region of the outer solar system. At this far distance, the Sun is so small and faint that noon on Neptune resembles a dim twilight on Earth.

This planet is characterized by: an ice giant due to its internal chemical composition. Compared to the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn, Neptune is much richer in elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. This is easily seen in Neptune’s characteristic blue appearance obtained from Hubble Space Telescope images at visible wavelengths.

Webb and his sharpness

Webb’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) creates images of objects in the near infrared range Between 0.6 and 5 microns. Therefore, Neptune does not appear blue through Webb’s instruments. In fact, methane gas absorbs red and infrared light so strongly that the planet is pretty dark at these near-infrared wavelengths, except where there are high-altitude clouds.

Such methane ice clouds stand out as bright streaks and dots that reflect sunlight before it is absorbed. for methane gas. Images from other observatories, including the Hubble Space Telescope and the WM Keck Observatory, have recorded these cloud features that have developed rapidly over the years.

More subtly, a thin line of luminosity surrounding the planet’s equator can be a visual cue. global atmospheric circulation Feeding the winds and storms of Neptune. At the equator, the atmosphere sinks and heats up, and therefore shines brighter at infrared wavelengths than colder concentrated gases.

Neptune’s 164-year orbit, the north pole at the top of this image, out of sight of astronomers, but Webb’s images show an intriguing glow in this area. A previously known vortex at the south pole is evident in Webb’s view, but Webb has revealed for the first time a continuous band of high-latitude clouds surrounding it.

14 monday

Webb caught 7 of them too All 14 known moons of Neptune. This portrait of Webb’s Neptune features a very bright spot of light showing the characteristic diffraction spikes seen in many of Webb’s images, but it’s not a star. Rather, it is Neptune’s large and unusual moon, Triton.

Covered in an icy sheen condensed nitrogen, Triton reflects an average of 70% of the sunlight hitting it. It outshines Neptune in this image because the planet’s atmosphere is obscured by methane absorption at these near-infrared wavelengths. Triton orbits Neptune in an unusual retrograde orbit, leading astronomers to speculate that this moon is actually a Kuiper Belt Object gravitationally captured by Neptune. Additional Webb studies of both Triton and Neptune are planned later this year.