Stunning Jupiter images show biggest planet has a lot going on
The worldâs newest and biggest space telescopeâ is showing đ§Jupiter as never before, auroras and all.
Scientists released the sđģhots Monday of the solar systemâs biggest planet.
The James Webb Space Telescope took the photos in July, capturinâg of Jupiterâs northern and southern lights, and swirling polar haze. Jupiterâs Great Red Spot, a storm big enough to swallow Earth, stands out brightly alongside countless smđaller storms.
One wide-field picture is particularly dramatic, showing the faint rings around the planet, as well as two đ tiny moons against a glitteriđng background of galaxies.
âWeâve never seen Jupiter like this. Itâs ađll quite incredible,â planetary astronomer Imke de Pater, of the University of California, Berkeley, said in a statement. He helped lead the observation. âWe hadnât really expected it to be this good, to be honest.â
The infrared images weđ˛re artificially colored in blue, white, green, yellow and orange, according to the US-French resđearch team, to make the features stand out.
NASA and the European Space Agencyâs $10 billion successor to the Hubble Space Telescope rocketed away at the end of last year and has been observing the āĩŠcosmos in the infrared since summer. Scientists hope to behold the dawn of the universe with Webb, pđ¯eering all the way back to when the first stars and galaxies were forming 13.7 billion years ago.
The observatory is positioneęĻēd 1 millionđļ miles from Earth.