James Webb Space Telescope sends back never seen before images of Neptune

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has sent back its first images of Neptune, the clearest images of the eighth planet from the Sun’s orbit in more than 30 years, the space agency reports.

The new images provide a “crisp” view of the ice giant’s rings, NASA said in a news release.

Hey Neptune. Did you ring? 👋

Webb’s latest image is the clearest look at Neptune’s rings in 30+ years, and our first time seeing them in infrared light. Take in Webb’s ghostly, ethereal views of the planet and its dust bands, rings and moons: https://t.co/Jd09henF1F #IAC2022 pic.twitter.com/17QNXj23ow

— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) September 21, 2022

Some of these rings have not been detected since NASA’s Voyager 2 became the first spacecraft to observe Neptune in 1989.

The Webb telescope also shows the planet’s faint dust band.

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“It’s been three decades since we last saw these faint, dusty rings, and this is the first time we’ve seen them in the infrared,” scientist Heidi Hammel said in a statement, praising the telescope’s high stability and precision. have seen.” picture quality.

Scientists have been limited to using ground-based telescopes to closely monitor the gas planet’s temperature.

Webb’s photos came as NASA fixed a problem with the $10 billion deep space telescope. Scientists confirmed on Wednesday that they had temporarily halted further observations with the telescope after a problem was detected with its mid-infrared instrument setting.

When was Neptune discovered?

Neptune, first discovered in 1846, is 30 times farther from the Sun than Earth. It is one of two planets in our solar system that scientists call ice giants, the other being Uranus.