NASA released new images of Jupiter from its James Webb Space Telescope showing its rings and auroras occurring at its north and south poles.
The two images are composites using three infrared filters to bring out details of the planet.
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“We hadn’t really expected it to be this good, to be honest,” said planetary astronomer Imke de Pater in a NASA blog post. “It’s really remarkable that we can see details on Jupiter together with its rings, tiny satellites, and even galaxies in one image.”
One of the two images of the “Gas Giant” shows a wide view of the planet in which two of its moons, a faint ring, the auroras, and galaxies are visible. The other image shows Jupiter by itself with several details amplified with the filters, including the auroras on its poles and the various storms on the gas planet.
Check out the bright waves, swirls, and vortices in Jupiter’s atmosphere — as well as the dark ring system, one million times fainter than the planet! Two moons of Jupiter, including one that’s only about 12 miles (20 km) across, are on the left. pic.twitter.com/o7XYOMdsq5
— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) August 22, 2022
“The brightness here indicates high altitude – so the Great Red Spot has high-altitude hazes, as does the equatorial region. The numerous bright white ‘spots’ and ‘streaks’ are likely very high-altitude cloud tops of condensed convective storms,” said Heidi Hammel, Webb interdisciplinary scientist for solar system observations, in the NASA blog post.
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The latest images of Jupiter come as NASA has released various images from the Webb telescope of the Cartwheel Galaxy and other parts of the universe. The telescope was launched into space in December 2021, and NASA has been releasing images from the telescope since last month.
