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James Webb captures Jupiter’s moons and rings in infrared

Georgina Torbet
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The James Webb Space Telescope has made headlines this week with its ability to look deeper into the universe than ever before, but it will also be used to look at some targets closer to home. As well as distant galaxies and far-off exoplanets, Webb will also be used to investigate objects right here in our solar system — and one of the first research projects it will be used for will study Jupiter and its rings and moons.

Now, NASA and its partners, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, have demonstrated how capable Webb is of studying Jupiter by releasing the first images it has taken of targets in our solar system. The images show the iconic stripes of Jupiter as seen in the infrared, and also show up some of the moons of Jupiter like Europa which is clearly visible below:

Jupiter, center, and its moon Europa, left, are seen through the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam instrument 2.12 micron filter.
Jupiter, center, and its moon Europa, left, are seen through the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam instrument 2.12-micron filter. NASA, ESA, CSA, and B. Holler and J. Stansberry (STScI)

“Combined with the deep field images released the other day, these images of Jupiter demonstrate the full grasp of what Webb can observe, from the faintest, most distant observable galaxies to planets in our own cosmic backyard that you can see with the naked eye from your actual backyard,” said one of the researchers who worked on the images, Bryan Holler of the Space Telescope Science Institute, in a statement.

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All of these images were taken using Webb’s NIRCam instrument, but with different filters which pick out different features. In the 3.2- micron filter on the right below, for example, you can more clearly see the moons Metis and Thebe as well as the larger and brighter Europa.

Left: Jupiter, center, and its moons Europa, Thebe, and Metis are seen through the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam instrument 2.12 micron filter. Right: Jupiter and Europa, Thebe, and Metis are seen through NIRCam’s 3.23 micron filter.
Left: Jupiter, center, and its moons Europa, Thebe, and Metis are seen through the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam instrument 2.12-micron filter. Right: Jupiter and Europa, Thebe, and Metis are seen through NIRCam’s 3.23-micron filter. NASA, ESA, CSA, and B. Holler and J. Stansberry (STScI)

“I couldn’t believe that we saw everything so clearly, and how bright they were,” said Stefanie Milam, Webb’s deputy project scientist for planetary science. “It’s really exciting to think of the capability and opportunity that we have for observing these kinds of objects in our solar system.”

One image even managed to capture Jupiter’s rarely-seen rings, which were observed using a longer wavelength filter:

Jupiter and some of its moons are seen through NIRCam’s 3.23 micron filter.
Jupiter and some of its moons are seen through NIRCam’s 3.23-micron filter. NASA, ESA, CSA, and B. Holler and J. Stansberry (STScI)

The variety of features picked up in these images promise great things about Webb’s potential to investigate targets here in our solar system — even more than the researchers had hoped.

“The Jupiter images in the narrow-band filters were designed to provide nice images of the entire disk of the planet, but the wealth of additional information about very faint objects (Metis, Thebe, the main ring, hazes) in those images with approximately one-minute exposures was absolutely a very pleasant surprise,” said John Stansberry, NIRCam commissioning lead at the Space Telescope Science Institute.

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Georgina Torbet
Georgina Torbet
Space Writer
Georgina is the Digital Trends space writer, covering human space exploration, planetary science, and cosmology. She…
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