22 August (UPI) – James Webb Space Telescope's photographs of Jupiter were used by NASA to reveal two new pictures on Monday.The Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on the telescope, which employs specialized infrared filters to highlight the intricacies of the planet, was used to take the pictures.
Imke de Pater, a planetary astronomer and professor emerita at the University of California, Berkeley, who assisted in leading the observations, said in a statement, "We hadn't really expected it to be this good, to be honest."
The fact that we can see intricacies of Jupiter, its rings, tiny satellites, and even galaxies in one shot is very amazing.
Using a filter that is mapped to redder colors, the first image, which is a composite of multiple photographs taken by Webb, shows auroras that reach to great heights above the planet's northern and southern poles.
The Great Red Spot, a violent storm on the planet, appears white when filtered via a different filter that is mapped to blues. This filter highlights light reflected from a deeper primary cloud.The faint rings of Jupiter can be seen in the second image, which also features a wide-field perspective. In the lower background, "fuzzy dots," which are probably other galaxies, can be seen.
Thierry Fouchet, a professor at the Paris Observatory who also assisted in leading the observations, said of the image, "This one image encapsulates up the science of our Jupiter system program, which investigates the dynamics and chemistry of Jupiter itself, its rings, and its satellite system.
The $10 billion James Webb Space Observatory, which NASA has praised as "the world's largest and most powerful space telescope" ever launched, debuted its first photographs last month. It is the Hubble Space Telescope's replacement.
NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, and the European Space Agency collaborated to take the pictures.
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