The poster child when it comes to planetary rings isSaturn. A new contender has entered the ring thanks to a stunning new image taken by theJWST.
Our solar system's eighth planet Neptune shimmers like a crystal ball with a stack of gauzy rings around it.
Astronomers have known for a long time that the ice giant has five rings made of ice dust. The new image shows the rings in a more detailed way than has been seen before by a survey.
The images clearly show Neptune's fainter dust bands, according to the researchers. "Webb's image quality makes it possible for these faint rings to be seen so close to Neptune."
Neptune is a world that is invisible to the naked eye. There are visible light images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
According to NASA, methane in the planet's cloudy atmosphere likely stretches down to great depths before forming a super-hot ocean of melted ice, ammonia and other compounds. The methane clouds shine eerily with the reflected sunlight and give the planet a white appearance.
The new image shows Neptune's moons. There are seven of the planet's 14 known moons on display here, including its largest, which is seen as the spiky point of light in the upper left corner. It looks like a bright star, but it's really just an icy rock.
The average amount of sunlight that hits it is 70 percent. The planet's atmosphere is darkened by methane absorption at the wavelength of the telescope.
On July 12th, the JWST began operations and has already released an array of stunning images of the universe. In the next year, the telescope will continue to observe Neptune and Triton.
It was originally published on Live Science
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