The first images of Mars were taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.
At the Europlanet Science Congress, the first images and spectrum of Mars were released. The images were taken from a million miles away from Mars.
The images of Mars' observable disk, which is the side of the planet lit by the sun and facing the telescope, could provide planetary scientists with a unique view of Earth's close neighbor.
The first direct photo of an alien world was taken by the james wbb space telescope.
Mars isn't the easiest object for the JWST to see because of it's close proximity.
"Mars is so bright, that the challenge is how to see it," NASA Planetary Systems Laboratory scientist and lead investigator Giuliano Liuzzi said at the release of the images.
Scientists used short exposures to prevent the bright light from Mars from blinding the instruments. Special methods were used to analyze the collected data after only some of the light that reached the detectors was measured.
We have a space telescope that has a limit on the amount of light it can pick up. The whole planet can be seen.
Astronomers need to study short-term phenomena like Martian weather patterns, dust storms, and even changes caused by the planet's seasons with the spatial resolution captured by theJWST.
The events that occur at different times throughout the day could be captured by the telescope.
There is an area in the eastern hemisphere of the planet in two different colors of light.
The short wavelength image shows the features of the Martian surface that are similar to those seen in visible light. There is an impact crater and dark volcanic rock in the planum.
Mars emits a light that is longer in wavelength than the rest of the world. The bright light is related to the temperature of Mars and the area where the sun is closest to the planet.
The northern hemisphere of the planet is currently in the midst of a winter and the Martian polar regions are exposed to less sun.
Light reaching the JWST isn't related to the planet's temperature. The chemical composition of the atmosphere and surface can be seen from the telescope images.
Analyzing the spectrum of light coming from Mars with data collected could help determine the composition of its atmosphere and surface.
The Hellas Basin appears to be darker than its surroundings even at the hottest time of the day.
There is a dark patch on Mars, and it's neat. We were not anticipating that. We saw something bright, but it got darker. At Hellas, this is not a thermal effect.
Light passing through the atmosphere of the planet Mars causes the structure to become dark.
The researcher explains that the Hellas Basin is a lower altitude. The suppression of the thermal emission is caused by an effect called pressure broadening. There are competing effects in the data.
The new images show the ability of the James Webb Space Telescope to study Mars using a technique called NIR Spec.
planetary scientists can use spectroscopy to study the 'fingerprints' that different chemicals leave in the light passing through a planet's atmosphere to determine its composition.
Initial results obtained by the scientists show that there is a lot of information about the planet.
The presence of water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and other chemical compounds should be identified by observations from the JWST.
There is a debate about the presence of methane on Mars, with initial ground-based observations and rovers providing evidence. While the TGO measurements haven't been able to confirm this, and observations from Earth are complicated by methane in our planet's atmosphere, Liuzzi believes that JWST observations could be the difference-maker.
The gap between the observational data and the rovers on the surface has been a problem. The full column of the atmosphere can be seen from the surface where the rover is. We have a new way to solve this problem.
Liuzzi said that methane can tell planetary scientists a lot about geological processes on Mars, such as if something large has struck the Red Planet from space recently. Methane could be indicative of biological activity in the past.
Liuzzi said that their main target is right now.
The team is working on a paper that will be presented to peers.
We encourage you to follow us on social media:
All Rights Reserved © 2024
