We finally have the first image of Saturn from the James Webb Space Telescope  

And it’s breathtaking

The James Webb Space Telescope has finally turned its mighty “eye” on Saturn! The RAW images have been uploaded to the JWST Feed website and the edited images will arrive shortly. That means today we’re just getting a taste of what’s to come when the images are cleaned up and colored. There are many images in the feed, most of which simply show a white glow.

However, through the filters of the Near Infrared Spectograph (NIRSpce) instrument we also got an image where Saturn appears almost black, with its rings glowing in the infrared spectrum. This is because Saturn’s rings reflect sunlight at 2 microns, but not at 3 and 5 microns. Saturn’s atmosphere reflects sunlight at 2 and 3 microns.

A shorter wavelength filter was used in the image below, and here Saturn’s clouds are visible, while the rings remain blindingly bright.

Astronomers hope to use the NIRSpec data to learn more about Saturn’s moons and rings. According to them, NIRSpec is sensitive enough to discover new satellites around the planet.

For now we can only admire these first images, pending the edited images.