Juarez City.- The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) published this Monday two unpublished images of Jupiter and the Universe that were captured in excellent quality thanks to the James Webb Telescope (JWST).
The illustrations, which were made with the different filters of the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam), stand out for the precise and visible details of some of the phenomena that occur on the largest planet in our Solar System.
Since infrared light is invisible to the human eye, it has been mapped onto the visible spectrum. Generally, longer wavelengths appear redder, while shorter wavelengths appear blue.
A different filter shows the auroras around the north and south poles in yellow and green colors.
Jupiter’s ring, its swirling winds, its Great Red Spot, and its blazing auroras at both poles can be clearly seen in one of the images. Likewise, two small moons called Amaltea and Adrastea are also observed, as well as a distant galaxy.
“To be honest, we really didn’t expect it to be that good (the JWST). 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 Imke de Pater, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
The Great Red Spot, a famous storm so big it could swallow the Earth, can be seen as white in these visualizations, like other clouds, because they reflect so much sunlight.
“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,” said Thierry Fouchet, a professor at the Paris Observatory.
“We have never seen Jupiter like this. It’s all pretty incredible,” said Imke de Pater, who is an astronomer and helped lead the observations.
“We really didn’t expect it to be this good, to be honest,” he added in a statement.
The infrared images were artificially colored blue, white, green, yellow and orange, according to the French-American research team, to highlight features.
The successor to NASA and the European Space Agency’s Hubble Space Telescope, valued at $10 billion, shot off late last year and has been observing the cosmos in the infrared since the summer. Scientists hope to witness the dawn of the universe with Webb, looking back to when the first stars and galaxies formed 13.7 billion years ago. (With information from Deutsche Welle and Associated Press)
$10 billion
James Webb Telescope Cost
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