Neptune's atmosphere, moons, and rings are revealed in the first picture of the ice giant taken by NASA.
There are faint bands of dust that encircle Neptune, but they haven't been brought to the attention of the public.
"It has been three decades since we last saw those faint, dusty bands, and this is the first time we've seen them in the IR," said an astronomer who specializes in Neptune. Neptune's rings are more clear.
The methane in Neptune's atmosphere makes it appear as a blue dot. The planet's disk is white in the image from NIRCam. Clouds of methane ice look like bright streaks and spots.
Neptune's south pole has a band of high-latitude clouds around it.
A thin line of brightness at the equator is said to be a sign of the global atmospheric circulation that powers Neptune's winds and storms. The stream is more bright in theIR.
There are seven of Neptune's 14 known moons, including a sparkling point of light that is Neptune's largest moon. The solar system's Kuiper Belt is thought to have captured an icy world from the sun.
Near the edge of the observable Universe are objects that are extremely redshifted.
The atmospheres of alien planets, as well as dusty nebulas, can be analyzed with the help of the IR detector.
Today's images show that JWST can provide fresh views of the stars within our own solar system.
The first pictures of Jupiter were unveiled last month.
The first images and data from Mars were taken this month.
Astronomers have been impressed by the results of the 6-ton telescope since it arrived at its observation point a million miles away.
Unlike the Hubble Space Telescope, a repair team can't make a service call.
There is an issue with one of the mechanisms for the Mid-Infrared instrument. The JWST team has paused MIRI's observations until a solution can be found.
The instrument that captured the telescope's view of Neptune is unaffected by the glitch.
This article was published in the past. The original article is worth a read.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
