![]() Zoom out further, and you’ll see a bluish jewel that is Triton, Neptune’s largest moon. The tiny specks of light around the planet are moons-seven of them. Those iridescent bright spots on the planet itself? They are clouds made of methane ice. The Webb telescope is far more powerful than Hubble and has not only captured the sharp outlines of the planet’s rings, but resolved the fuzzy bands of dust that hover between them. No spacecraft has visited the planet since Voyager, and space telescopes such as Hubble have already observed the planet about as much as they can. That 33-year-old image was our best view of Neptune’s ring system until now. Voyager’s view of Neptune’s rings (NASA / JPL) Read: A gnarly new theory about Saturn’s rings The evidence for Neptune’s rings came in 1989, when Voyager finally reached that planet and revealed wispy, elegant arcs. (I know, right? Those classic illustrations of the solar system really left a lot out.) Astronomers discovered faint bands around Uranus using ground-based observations in 1977, and NASA’s Voyager mission revealed the same around Jupiter in 1979. After all, Saturn had them, and so, it turned out, did Uranus and Jupiter. Scientists imagined that Neptune might have rings well before they had any evidence. ![]() We’ve never seen Neptune and its rings like this before. And already, that promise is being fulfilled. This was part of the promise of the Webb mission: As the telescope searched the depths of the universe for the faintest, earliest galaxies, it would also provide an entirely new view of our cosmic neighborhood. The observatory that produced the image, the James Webb Space Telescope, works in infrared wavelengths, so Neptune resembles a spooky crystal ball dipped in dry ice rather than its usual, striking cobalt-blue self. There they are, a pair of delicate bands encircling a shimmery marble, the whole ensemble doing its best impression of Saturn. So I wanted to present this information to you, and let it sink in a little bit, before getting into the news of the day: Astronomers have directed their best space telescope at Neptune and captured the clearest view of its rings in more than 30 years. But for those of us who have certain textbook images of the solar system in our mind, the knowledge that Neptune is a ringed planet might come as a surprise. Planetary scientists know this, as do hard-core astronomy fans, probably. The planet we’re now told is the farthest from us has a set of narrow bands made of dust. It's thought that Triton may also contain a subsurface ocean, which is why a new mission called Trident to visit Triton is currently being planned.It’s true. Triton appears so large because it is covered in nitrogen ice, meaning its surface reflects about 70% of sunlight that hits it. The large, bright point of light with diffraction spikes that dominates the image is Triton, Neptune's largest moon.īut look closely and you can also see 7 of Neptune's 14 known moons surrounding the planet. ![]() Credit: Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, processed by Joseph DePasquale (STScI) An annotated view of Neptune, its rings, moons and large moon Triton captured by the James Webb Space Telescope, 12 July 2022. The methane gas that gives Neptune its blue hue in the Voyager 2 images actually absorbs red and infrared light, so the planet appears almost dark in near-infrared, except for those regions where high-altitude clouds are present. The answer lies inWebb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), which images objects in the near-infrared range from 0.6 to 5 microns. Credit: NASAĪnyone familiar with Voyager 2's images of Neptune might be wondering why the ice giant doesn't appear vibrant blue in these new JWST images. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Cloud systems seen in Neptune's southern hemisphere, photographed by the Voyager 2 spacecraft. "It has been three decades since we last saw those faint, dusty bands, and this is the first time we’ve seen them in the infrared," says Heidi Hammel, interdisciplinary scientist for Webb. Planetary scientists are already discussing the new Webb image of Neptune in relation to those captured by the Voyager 2 spacecraft as it flew by the planet in 1989. ![]() See James Webb Space Telescope's latest images A view of Neptune, its rings, moons and large moon Triton captured by the James Webb Space Telescope, 12 July 2022. NASA has now released an incredible view of ice giant Neptune, captured by JWST on 12 July 2022, that reveals the planet's rings and faint dust bands in amazing detail. So far, most of the James Webb Space Telescope's images have revealed infrared views of deep-sky objects like galaxies and nebulae.Īnd while we have already seen beautiful Webb images of Jupiter and its moons, planet fans have been waiting to see what else it can show us of our own Solar System. Neptune's rings are incredible in brand new Webb Telescope image
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