The Best of JWST’s Cosmic Portraits

Jupiter's rings, its moons, and even a background galaxies can be seen in this image. Whiter areas have more cloud cover, which reflects sunlight, and darker areas have less cloud cover. At the north and south poles, there is a blue glow in the sky. The light shows are caused by high-energy particles hitting atoms in Jupiter's atmosphere. The sun's particles are steered to the poles by a magnetic field on any planet with an atmosphere and a similar atmosphere.

This photo was taken with observations from Hubble and JWST. Older, redder stars at the galaxy's glowing core and younger, bluer stars on its outskirts can be seen in visible-light data from Hubble. The gas and dust threaded through the spiral arms, as well as a bright cluster of stars at the heart of the galaxy, are highlighted by the IR light captured by JWST. The combined image of each telescope's view offers a more complete picture than ever before.

This is the first time a view of Neptune's rings has been provided in the form of a telescope. The bright blue dot on Neptune's upper left is one of the planet's moons. The moon has a frozen nitrogen surface that reflects 70% of the sunlight it gets. There are distant galaxies in the background of this picture. Two thin, bright ovals and two fainter, spread-out layers of Neptune's rings can be seen in the bottom of the picture. Methane ice clouds in the planet's atmosphere cause spots to form.