James Webb Reveals Neptune’s Rings (PICTURES)  

The best picture we’ve ever had

As the James Webb Space Telescope turns its lens on our solar system, after the amazing photo of Mars , comes a new one from Neptune. In this particular photo , the rings of Neptune are not only clear, but we have for the first time an image of them in the near-infrared spectrum. At this wavelength, the planet does not appear in that blue color that we are used to. The absorption of infrared and red light gives it a darker shade, highly impressive.

Additionally, the image also reveals seven of the planet’s fourteen confirmed satellites. The bright parts of Neptune depicted are clouds of frozen methane, while we also see a cyclone at the south pole. The remaining surface of compressed nitrogen reflects 70% of sunlight.

Neptune is very important to scientists, as the distance of 4.5 billion kilometers from the Sun offers conditions not found on the closest planets. Temperatures reach -214 degrees Celsius and one revolution around the Sun takes 164 years. The strange orbit of Triton’s satellite, in fact, indicates that it is a Kuiper Belt object that succumbed to Neptune’s gravity.

This is the first ever photo of Neptune from JWST, and many more observations will follow, offering a wealth of knowledge about the distant, icy planet and its moons.