Neptune and its rings shown in striking new light by Webb telescope

For the first time in decades, an image of a Neptune and its rings has been captured by a space telescope.

The last time an astronomer had a clear view of the farthest planet from the sun was when the first space probe flew past the ice giant.

Mark McCaughrean is a senior adviser for science and exploration at the European Space Agency.

McCaughrean said that the telescope takes all that glare and background away so that we can start to tease out the atmospheric composition of the planet.

Methane in Neptune's atmosphere makes it appear as if it is deep blue in previous Hubble images.

The planet is greyish white and has icy clouds on top.

McCaughrean said that the rings are more reflective in the IR.

The image shows a bright area near Neptune. Astronomers have not been able to see the north pole because the planet is tilted away from Earth.

There are seven of Neptune's known moons. There is a bright star that appears to be a very bright spiky star, but it is in fact the moon of Neptune, which is covered with a huge moon halo.

The ice covered planet is brighter than Neptune because of its size. McCaughrean said that Neptuneabsorbs most of the light that falls on it.

It is thought that an object from the nearby Kuiper belt was captured in the planet's atmosphere. McCaughrean said it was cool to have a look at it.

The most common ice giants in the universe are Neptune and Uranus. McCaughrean said, "We can key into our observations of other ice giants by looking at these ones in great detail."

The most powerful space telescope ever built is operational and has already unleashed unprecedented data. A new era of discovery is what scientists are hoping for.

The next year will see the start of research on Neptune and Triton.

McCaughrean said that astronomy was unimaginable five years ago.

We built it to do this and it is exactly what we designed. It was impossible before to see things in these longer wavelength.