The James Webb Space Telescope has now demonstrated its amazing capabilities with its first image of Neptune. Not only has it captured the brightest image of this strange planet’s rings in more than 30 years, its cameras show the ice giant in a whole new light.
The most striking thing about the new Webb image, captured by the near-infrared camera (NIRCam), is the sharp image of the planet’s dynamic rings — some of which have not been seen at all since the Voyager 2 spacecraft flew past in 1989. . seen – let alone in this brightness.
The images sent back to Earth from the space observatory clearly show Neptune’s fainter dust bands (shown below with some of its 14 moons). The extremely stable and accurate image quality of “Webb” also makes it possible to detect these very faint rings so close to Neptune, the US space agency NASA and its European counterpart, ESA, report on their websites.
Neptune has fascinated and amazed researchers since its discovery in 1846. The eighth and outermost known planet in our solar system is located about 30 times farther from the sun than our Earth and orbits one of the darkest regions of the solar system. At this extreme distance, the sun is so small and dim that noon on Neptune resembles a twilight twilight on Earth.
1.5 million kilometers from Earth
The “James Webb Space Telescope” (JWST, photo below), which was also built with Austrian participation, was launched in December 2021 after decades of preparation and some delay. It is now more than one and a half million kilometers from our earth.
The JWST studies the early days of the cosmos, just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, about 13.8 billion years ago. Astronomers hope that the data sent into space from the observatory will allow them to draw conclusions about the formation of the first stars and galaxies. The telescope also scans the sky for exoplanets.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
