The James Webb Space Telescope has delivered never-before-seen images of Neptune and its rings, providing valuable insights into its atmosphere, NASA announced on Wednesday. The planet no longer has its bluish appearance, but takes on a colorized hue in a greyish white.
Astronomers have not had such a clear view of the most distant planet in the solar system since the brief and unique passage of a probe, Voyager 2, in the vicinity of this icy giant in 1989.
The telescope’s infrared vision provides a new way to analyze its atmosphere, said Mark McCaughrean, science and exploration adviser at the European Space Agency (ESA).
The telescope removes all glare from the sun’s reflection off Neptune’s surface and light pollution from its surroundings, so it “starts to guess the atmospheric makeup” of the planet, said the astronomer, who worked more than 20 years on the James Webb project.
“Strange Light”
Neptune had a bluish appearance in images taken in the visible waveband by the Hubble telescope, due to the presence of methane in its atmosphere. With James Webb’s NIRCam instrument, the planet takes on a colorized hue in a grayish white. The image also shows “strange light” at one of Neptune’s poles, the US space agency said in a statement.
The telescope also captured images of seven of the planet’s fourteen known moons, including Triton, which looks like a small star in its brightness. Larger than the dwarf planet Pluto, it also appears brighter than Neptune due to the reflection of sunlight off its icy surface.
