![]() ![]() It may also provide new insight into how Neptune’s clouds and storms evolve, she says. That should provide new data on what the rings are made of and their motions. Upcoming JWST observations will look at Neptune with other scientific instruments. “So we can really see fine details that we haven’t been able to see before.” “JWST was designed to look at the first stars and galaxies across the universe,” Milam says. The enormity of the telescope’s mirror helps make its images extra sharp. She’s also a project scientist on this telescope. She works at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. That makes them “extremely reflective in infrared light,” notes this planetary scientist. “The rings have lots of ice and dust in them,” says Stefanie Milam. Explainer: What is a planet?Īnd then there are its ever-elusive rings. A few bright patches mark where high-altitude ice clouds of methane reflect sunlight. That’s because methane gas in the planet’s atmosphere absorbs much of its infrared light. Neptune itself appears mostly dark in the new image. Luckily, it’s got good eyesight because it was gazing at the planet from a distance of 4.4 billion kilometers (2.7 billion miles). That’s when the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, turned its sharp, infrared gaze toward Neptune. JPL/NASAĪs Voyager 2 continued into interplanetary space, Neptune’s rings once again went into hiding - until this past July. It was taken shortly after the probe made its closest approach to the planet. Neptune’s rings appear as thin arcs of light in this 1989 image from the Voyager 2 spacecraft. ![]()
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