James Webb Space Telescope captures best image of Neptune’s rings in decades

James Webb’s Space Telescope solar system tour just shed new light on the most distant planet in our cosmic region. Researchers have shared The observatory’s first image of Neptune, and it provided the best view of the world’s icy rings in more than 30 years. The image is not only clear, but also offers the first look at dust-based rings in the near-infrared spectrum. At these wavelengths, the planet does not look blue – it absorbs so much infrared and visible red light that it has a dark, ghostly appearance.

The image also shows seven of Neptune’s 14 confirmed moons, including Triton (‘star’ at the top) as well as Galatea, Naiad, Thalassa, Despina, Proteus and Larissa. The bright spots and streaks on the planet represent methane ice clouds, including a vortex surrounding a vortex at the south pole. Triton’s eye-catching appearance is the product of both the James Webb telescope’s narrative diffraction spikes as well as the condensed nitrogen surface that normally reflects 70% of sunlight.

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Neptune is a particularly important target for scientists. At about 2.8 billion miles from the Sun, it is far enough away to cope with conditions not available to the closer planets, such as very low temperatures and very long orbits (164 years). Triton’s strange retrograde orbit even suggests it could be a Kuiper Belt Object cannot withstand the gravity of Neptune.

This is just the beginning of studies using the James Webb telescope, and the researchers expect to collect more observations of both Neptune and Triton within the next year. As with recent glimpses of Mars and Jupiter, astronomers are only collecting preliminary data at this stage. You may have to wait a while before further insights can improve our understanding of Neptune and space in general.