The latest photos show Jupiter's signature elements, such as northern and southern lights, swirling polar haze, and regions of extreme temperature. The images released by NASA also capture Jupiter with its rings, tiny satellites and galaxies.
The biggest planet in the solar system, Jupiter, has always had the same appearance. Most of us recall the gas giant from our schoolbooks and encyclopaedias as a yellowish-orange sphere. The most recent James Webb telescope operated by NASA, however, has released fresh photographs of Jupiter that depict the planet in a totally different light.
Large storms, strong winds, auroras, and extremely high pressure and temperature conditions on the solar system's biggest planet have all been photographed by NASA's telescope.
The NASA remarked on Twitter, "From a large planet, giant news! Infrared images of Jupiter were recently taken by @NASAWebb, which revealed details about the planet's interior life. There are two moons, rings, and far-off galaxies to be seen."
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The most recent infrared photos of Jupiter provided by NASA show the planet with a greenish blue hue. The photographs depict the planet in its entirety, including all of its distinguishing features, such as the enormous storms, auroras, and regions of high temperature.
Planetary astronomer Imke de Pater remarked in a news release, "We hadn't really anticipated it to be this wonderful, to be honest." Thierry Fouchet, a professor at the Paris Observatory, and De Pater, an emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley, were the observers of Jupiter.
Fouchet said it was "really remarkable" that they could see details of Jupiter as well as its rings, tiny satellites, and even galaxies in one image. The dynamics and chemistry of Jupiter, its rings, and its satellite system are all studied by our Jupiter system programme, which, according to Fouchet, is represented by this one picture.
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Images from the James Webb telescope do not always arrive in the same format as what we see online, as NASA notes in a blog post. Instead, scientists receive a set of data that was recorded by the James Webb Space Telescope's light detectors.
NASA and the European Space Agency's $10 billion successor to the Hubble Space Telescope rocketed away at the end of last year and has been observing the cosmos in the infrared since summer.
With Webb, astronomers aim to see the beginning of the universe, looking back to 13.7 billion years ago, when the first stars and galaxies were formed.
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