The large planets of our solar system are unusual in the images of the Webb Space Telescope. From the direction of the Sun, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are counted from the left. The image is a composite image where the distances and sizes of the planets are not to scale.
Infrared images of large planets revealed new spots, storms and new rings.
A space telescope James Webb has finally photographed the four giant gas and ice planets of our solar system.
Astronomers knew how to expect surprises even from these “close-up” pictures, because Webb illuminated fairly familiar planets with new mirrors and lenses.
Webb’s infrared images revealed many new details about the planets’ rings and surfaces. The images were taken by Webb’s camera NIRCam.
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The US space administration promised that it would occasionally photograph familiar objects.
on Webb has been busy enough days of the year.
It released the first five official images on July 12, 2022, a year ago. Expectations were high. After all, it was the largest, most powerful and most accurate telescope ever built.
Webb was taken into space to the L2 point after tortuous steps.
At the L2 point, it has mostly looked very far into space. It searches for the earliest galaxies and stars in the universe, from which radiation has emanated more than 13 billion years ago.
That’s why it was sent to its track. The findings have been interpreted for about a year. There’s plenty of surprising new things, wherever it turns its gaze in the universe.
Some now admit that Webb has already delivered on his promise, despite only being a toddler.
However, this is only a foretaste, as Webb is designed to film for no less than 20 years. Its udder also has a propellant to stay in L2 for at least 20 years
Webb’s the owner and main financier Nasa, i.e. the US Space Administration, promised that it would occasionally photograph familiar objects. This is how Nasa guarantees the popularity of the space telescope.
The “straight of the four planets” was completed for the anniversary. Webb was the fourth to photograph the familiar ringed planet, ie Saturn on June 25th.
Webb focused on Saturn’s magnificent rings, which glow like gold in the dark in infrared images.
Although the surface is brown, it tells about Saturn’s seasons.
Saturn’s the planet is just a dark disk in the new image. It lacks the characteristic striped cloud bands on its surface. The surface looks dull brown.
Infrared images can reveal a lot even when they are dim. Webb, for example, can see through clouds with infrared wavelengths.
Some elements and chemical changes also emit infrared light.
Even in brown, the surface of the ring planet provides information about Saturn’s seasons.
The northern hemisphere’s seven-year summer is coming to an end, but the polar region is dark. The reason may be the composition of aerosols in the gas atmosphere. An aerosol is a mixture of gas and particles suspended in it.
Around the edges of the planet, the gas ring appears bright. It may be due to the fluorescence of methane gas, which emits light.
The famous red dot of Jupiter radiates light, in the picture at four o’clock.
Jupiter was the first giant planet that Webb filmed already in August of last year.
In the images, for example, the permanent aurora borealis of Jupiter’s poles stood out, which are not visible at normal wavelengths. Jupiter’s fragile rings were also revealed.
The brightened north pole of Uranus is sharply tilted relative to the orbital plane. So the rings go around the equator.
Uranus is an ice planet, and quite far at the edge of the solar system.
The axis of Uranus is tilted almost 90 degrees relative to the orbital plane. This phenomenon has not yet been fully explained, and Webb’s pictures did not solve the puzzle. In the pictures, the North Pole is tilted in the direction of three o’clock.
Images from April 2023 revealed Uranus 13 tires with new structures.
Webb also described how Uranus’ gas ring has brightened over the years over the planet’s north pole to the right.
Neptune revealed its spots from the gas ring.
From Neptune Webb filmed in late September 2022. Because Neptune is the most distant planet, it has been little photographed before.
The most accurate images were taken by the Voyager 2 probe during its flyby as early as 1989. Webb photographed the ice giant’s fine rings in 2022 for the first time in more than 30 years, and for the first time in infrared light.
Webb also revealed spots in the ice planet’s atmosphere. They are big storms.
A bright band circles the planet’s equator. It was not known before.
According to planetary scientists, it means that Neptune’s gas ring is spreading over the entire planet.
He also told about the pictures website Science Alert.
Webb’s the gaze is now again focused billions of light years away.
Sometimes, however, it probably offers new surprises from the neighborhood as well. Earth’s own Moon, for example, has not been photographed by Webb, but the moons of other planets have.
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