The latest image of Saturn by JWST.The moons Dione, Tethys, and Enceladus are visible on the left.
Space Telescope Science Institute Public Support Provider Secretariat: NASA, ESA, CSA, JWST Saturn Team, Joseph Depasquale (STScI)
Saturn was captured as a ghostly sphere by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and its rings are brighter than ever. Her three moons, Dione, Tethys, and Enceladus, are also visible.
“By any stretch of the imagination, this is not a familiar view of Saturn,” he says. Lee Fletcher at the University of Leicester, UK. “In the atmosphere, at deeper levels, we don’t see the banding that is characteristic of Saturn. That’s because this particular wavelength we’ve chosen emits methane gas in Saturn’s atmosphere that’s nearly as strong as the sunlight that hits Saturn.” Because it’s a wavelength that absorbs everything, so it looks really, really dark.”
The image is based on near-infrared observations of the planet, with JWST’s infrared detectors revealing small, faint structures in Saturn’s atmosphere, rings and moons that have been missed by previous missions such as the Cassini spacecraft. Fletcher hopes it will. Cassini last imaged Saturn in 2017, and since then it has begun to tilt it head-on toward Earth as part of its 30-year orbit, with both poles of Saturn receiving equal amounts of sunlight. ing.
“This is like the equinox on Earth. It’s time to take another look at the Saturn system,” says Fletcher.
Saturn’s unusual appearance is caused in part by infrared-sensitive aerosols in the upper stratosphere, giving it a speckled appearance rather than the typical striped structure of Saturn. says Mr Fletcher. The bright white rings are the result of highly reflective ice grains that reflect sunlight.
The image is a still exposure of Saturn, which Fletcher and his colleagues plan to use as a point of comparison to help identify what is what in later images of Saturn. It will also help study long exposures of Saturn and its surroundings, resembling a very short movie, allowing us to identify smaller moving objects and structures, such as smaller moons.
topic:
