NASA's James Webb Telescope captures Saturn's rings. Here are the details
File photo.
The James Webb Telescope captured a stunning image of Saturn's rings. According to a blog by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) dated June 30, the image was captured on June 25. "Saturn itself appears extremely dark at this infrared wavelength observed by the telescope, as methane gas absorbs almost all of the sunlight falling on the atmosphere. However, the icy rings stay relatively bright, leading to the unusual appearance of Saturn in the Webb image," the blog post said.
The image was taken as part of the Webb Guaranteed Time Observation program 1247- which included very deep exposures of Saturn, which were designed to test the telescope’s capacity to detect faint moons around the planet and its bright rings.
What does the image reveal?
As per the blog post, the image revealed details within Saturn's ring system along with several of the planet’s moons – Dione, Enceladus, and Tethys. The additional deeper exposures would allow NASA to investigate Saturn's fainter rings- including the G ring and the E ring.
NASA says the rings surrounding Saturn are mostly broad, with a few singular narrow gaps between the broader rings. There is an innermost, thicker ring, and next to it is a brighter, wider ring.
Travelling farther outward, there is a small dark gap before another thicker ring. In the thicker ring, there is a narrow faint band. There is then an outermost, faintest, thinnest ring, the space agency adds.
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The post further said that Saturn's atmosphere also showed surprising and unexpected detail.
"Although the Cassini spacecraft observed the atmosphere at greater clarity, this is the first time that the planet’s atmosphere has been seen with this clarity at this particular wavelength (3.23 microns), which is unique to Webb," it added.
The large, dark, diffuse structures in the northern hemisphere do not follow the planet’s lines of latitude, so this image is lacking the familiar striped appearance that is typically seen from Saturn’s deeper atmospheric layers.
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