The James Webb telescope shows new images of Jupiter – Aerospace News – Aerospace News

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured new images of Jupiter with giant storms, powerful winds, auroras, and extreme temperature and pressure conditions, which will give scientists even more clues about the inner life of this planet. “To be honest, we really didn’t expect it to be that good,” said planetary astronomer Imke de Pater, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. De Pater led the Jupiter observations with Thierry Fouchet, a professor at the Paris Observatory, as part of an international collaboration for Webb’s Early Release Science program. Webb itself is an international mission led by NASA with its partners ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). “It’s really remarkable that we can see details of Jupiter along with its rings, small satellites and even galaxies in a single image,” said the astronomer. The images come from the observatory’s near-infrared camera (NIRCam), which has three specialized infrared filters that show details of the planet. Since infrared light is invisible to the human eye, the light has been mapped onto the visible spectrum. Generally, longer wavelengths appear redder and shorter wavelengths appear bluer. In the stand-alone view of Jupiter, created from a combination of several Webb images, the aurorae stretch high above Jupiter’s north and south poles. Auroras glow in a filter that maps to redder colors, which also brings out reflected light from lower clouds and upper haze. A different filter, assigned to yellows and greens, shows mists swirling around the north and south poles. A third filter, assigned to blues, shows light reflecting off a deeper parent cloud. The Great Red Spot, a famous storm so big it could swallow the Earth, appears white in these views, like other clouds, because it reflects so much sunlight. “The brightness here indicates high altitude, so the Great Red Spot has high-altitude haze, as does the equatorial region,” said Heidi Hammel, Webb Interdisciplinary Scientist for Solar System Observations and AURA Vice President for Science. “The many bright white ‘spots’ and ‘streaks’ are likely high-altitude cloud tops from condensed convective storms.” In contrast, the dark belts north of the equatorial region have little cloud cover. In a wide-field view, Webb sees Jupiter with its faint rings, which are a million times fainter than the planet, and two tiny moons named Amalthea and Adrasthea. The fuzzy spots in the lower background are probably galaxies that are “photographing” this Jovian view. “This image sums up the science of our Jupiter system program, which studies the dynamics and chemistry of Jupiter itself, its rings, and its satellite system,” Fouchet said. Researchers have already begun analyzing the Webb data for new scientific results about the largest planet in our solar system.