NASA has released a new batch of images from the James Webb Space Telescope, this time featuring Jupiter and some of its moons.
The images of our solar system’s largest planet were taken using the telescope’s near-infrared camera during instrument tests before official operations began on July 12. They come after NASA’s first batch of images from the James Webb Space Telescope, a set of deep-field pictures showing distant galaxies.
“Combined with the deep-field images released the other day, these images of Jupiter demonstrate the full picture of what Webb can observe, from the faintest, most distant galaxies that can be observed to the planets in our own space yard,” said Brian Holler, a scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, in a media release issued Thursday.
The images show hot spots on Jupiter — like the Great Red Spot, a storm big enough to engulf Earth — in bright yellow. Cooler spots appear in brown. Similarly, images taken with the telescope’s 2.12 micron filter show moons like Thebes and Metidas in yellow, while Europa, which is covered in ice, appears dark in the center. Europa’s shadow is also visible on Jupiter’s surface, to the left of the Great Red Spot.
“I couldn’t believe we saw everything so clearly and how bright they were,” Stephanie Milam, Webb’s associate project scientist for planetary sciences, said in a media release Thursday. “It’s really exciting to think about the possibilities and opportunities we have to observe these types of objects in our solar system.”
Phil Groff is the Executive Director of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. He said that while other satellites and probes such as the Cassini and Juno spacecraft have taken detailed pictures of Jupiter, these latest images are exciting because they demonstrate Webb’s ability to observe heat signatures that are not visible to the naked eye.
“Because we’re looking at infrared and seeing heat patterns, we can see things in action that sometimes wouldn’t be as visible,” Groff said. “So studying something like the Great Red Spot, or studying something like any kind of active process using infrared, gives us a chance to look at the energy dynamics that are involved in a different way than you would with just a visible observation.” “
Left: Jupiter, center, and its moons Europa, Thebes, and Metidas seen through the James Webb Space Telescope’s 2.12 micron NIRCam filter. Right: Jupiter and Europa, Thebes and Metis seen through NIRCam’s 3.23 micron filter. (Source: NASA, ESA, CSA, B. Holler and J. Stansberry)
For example, NASA scientists will try to see if they can capture images of jets of material ejected from moons like Jupiter’s Europa and Saturn’s Enceladus, as well as the signatures of jets depositing material on Europa’s surface, the agency said in a media release.
NASA scientists are particularly interested in learning more about Europa because of the possibility that it may harbor life in a vast liquid ocean beneath its icy crust.
Groff said that whatever scientists can learn about Europa and other objects in our solar system using Webb could expand our understanding of the rest of the universe.
“It will give us a better sense of where there are large concentrations of water and other important chemicals in our system that might be signs of potential life… And it will also tell us more about how these things are distributed in the universe “, he said.
“Assuming that our solar system is not unique, looking at how our solar system works — and its chemical composition — gives us an idea of what the rest of the universe might be like.”
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