Saturn has emerged in a completely new light in the image captured by the James Webb Space Telescope, which was released by NASA on June 30.
In this latest image, Saturn appears dark, but the rings surrounding this giant gas planet – also known as “Saturn’s rings” – shine brightly.
Image of Saturn captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. (Source: NASA).
The James Webb Space Telescope took this impressive photo using its infrared camera last weekend.
At this wavelength, Saturn appears darker compared to typical images due to sunlight being absorbed by methane in its atmosphere.
However, the planet’s rings remain bright. Saturn’s rings primarily consist of ice, with a small proportion of rocky dust in space created by collisions between asteroid fragments and micrometeoroids.
Additionally, James Webb’s camera captured images of 3 out of the 82 moons orbiting Saturn.
The scientific community highly values the image from James Webb as it shows detailed views of Saturn’s atmosphere. They hope to uncover new ring structures, as well as any new moons that may be “lurking” there.
Matthew Tiscareno, a senior researcher at the SETI Institute, stated: “We will conduct in-depth studies to see what secrets await to be discovered.”
NASA, along with the European Space Agency, launched the James Webb Space Telescope “successor” to the Hubble Space Telescope into space at the end of 2021.
The scientific community hopes that through this $10 billion device, they can witness the “dawn of the universe” – the moment when stars and galaxies first formed 13.7 billion years ago. Currently, the James Webb Space Telescope is located 1.6 million kilometers from Earth.
