NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team; Image processing by Judy Schmidt.
NASA has published two more pictures Made from data collected by the James Webb Space Telescope, they reveal incredible detail about the largest planet in the Solar System.
The data used to process the images were captured in late July using the telescope’s Near Infrared Camera, which observes light at wavelengths slightly longer than those at the red end of the visible spectrum. By observing Jupiter at these wavelengths beyond visible light, the powerful space telescope can reveal previously unobserved details of the planet.
One of the photos in particular showcases auroras at both poles resulting from Jupiter’s strong magnetic field. The colors in these images are wrong—the light is mapped in the visible spectrum because infrared light is not visible to the human eye. Auroras glow in a filter paired with redder colors due to emissions of ionized hydrogen.
Jupiter’s “Great Red Spot” also appears to be white instead of reddish, but stands out in the new images. This white color indicates reflection from high altitude cloud tops.
A second image provides a wider view of the Jovian system and includes perspective on the planet’s thin rings, two smaller moons, and the extent of its auroras. The rings are extremely difficult to observe from afar, as they are 1 million times fainter than the planet. Distant galaxies can also be seen in the background.
Emeritus professor Imke de Pater of the University of California at Berkeley, along with Professor Thierry Fouchet at the Paris Observatory, pioneered Webb’s scientific observations of the planet.
“To be honest, we really didn’t expect it to be this good,” he said in the news release accompanying the footage. It’s really remarkable that we can see the details of Jupiter with its rings, tiny moons and even galaxies in one image.”
NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team; Image processing by Ricardo Hueso (UPV/EHU) and Judy Schmidt.
Why did it take so long to process these images? The simple answer is that the James Webb Space Telescope does not take pictures with its large mirrors that can simply be transmitted back to Earth. Instead, raw luminosity data from Webb’s detectors is sent to the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. Scientists, including NASA researchers, turn this data into images that are best available to the public.
However, this data repository is public and citizen scientists can also use this data to process images. When it comes to new Jupiter images, Modesto, California-based Judy Schmidt has done this processing. She collaborated with Ricardo Hueso, who studies planetary atmospheres at the University of the Basque Country in Spain, for the image featuring the tiny moons.
