New Webb images of Jupiter highlight planet’s features in amazing detail

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured new images of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, highlighting the gas giant’s features including its turbulent Great Red Spot and auroras in amazing detail.

The new images come from Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), the observatory’s primary imager which has three specialized infrared filters that showcase details of the planet. These new views of Jupiter were processed by citizen scientist Judy Schmidt.

Firstly, the standalone view of Jupiter (pictured above) was created from a composite of several images from Webb, where auroras are seen extending to high altitudes above both the northern and southern poles of the giant planet.

The auroras shine in a filter that is mapped to redder colors, which also highlights light reflected from lower clouds and upper hazes. A different filter, mapped to yellows and greens, shows hazes swirling around the northern and southern poles. A third filter, mapped to blues, showcases light that is reflected from a deeper main cloud, NASA explained.

Just like other clouds, the Great Red Spot appears white in these views, because they are reflecting a lot of sunlight.

NIRCam widefield view of Jupiter/Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team/Image processing by Ricardo Hueso (UPV/EHU) and Judy Schmidt.

Secondly, in the NIRCam widefield view, Webb observes Jupiter with its faint rings and two tiny moons – Amalthea and Adrastea. The fuzzy spots in the lower background are likely galaxies “photobombing” this Jovian view.

“We hadn’t really expected it to be this good, to be honest. It’s really remarkable that we can see details on Jupiter together with its rings, tiny satellites, and even galaxies in one image,” said planetary astronomer Imke de Pater, professor emerita of the University of California, Berkeley. De Pater led the observations of Jupiter with Thierry Fouchet, a professor at the Paris Observatory, as part of an international collaboration for Webb’s Early Release Science program.

1. Make way for the king of the solar system! ?New Webb images of Jupiter highlight the planet’s features, including its turbulent Great Red Spot (shown in white here), in amazing detail. These images were processed by citizen scientist Judy Schmidt: pic.twitter.com/saz0u61kJG

— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) August 22, 2022

Webb is the world’s largest and most powerful space science telescope ever built. Led by NASA with its partners European Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency, the mission is designed to solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it.