Two small moons, nebulous rings and glowing poles: NASA has released impressive new images of Jupiter thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope.
“It’s really remarkable to be able to see details of Jupiter with its rings, its small satellites and even galaxies, all in a single image”, welcomed Monday Imke de Pater, astronomer at the University of Berkeley. , in a NASA blog post.
At the poles of the most massive planet in our solar system emerge fluorescent lights: these are the auroras of Jupiter which, as for our Earth, are made up of particles from the Sun which react to the magnetic field of the star.
These images also show the surface of this gas giant with its winds, storms and fogs.
A larger view shows Jupiter with its very thin rings and two moons, Amalthea and Adrastea.
Engineering Jewel
These images are taken from the observations of a tool by James Webb, NiRcam, which observes the near infrared, a field invisible to the naked eye.
The data collected, which will be studied by researchers to better understand the internal workings of Jupiter, have been adapted to draw these illustrations visible to the human eye.
A $10 billion engineering gem, the James Webb Telescope was launched into space almost eight months ago and is 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.