NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope portrait of the star-filled Pillars of Creation

However, the near-infrared wavelengths captured by Webb’s primary imaging, NIRCam, show the planet a greyish-white color, with clouds of ice streaking its surface.

“The rings are more reflective in the infrared,” McCaughrean said, “so they’re much easier to see.”

The image also shows “interesting brightness” near the top of Neptune, NASA said in a statement.

Since the planet is tilted away from Earth, it takes 164 years to orbit the sun, so astronomers have not yet been able to get a good look at its north pole.

The Webb telescope also saw seven of Neptune’s 14 known moons, when they appear above Neptune in a magnified image as a very bright pointed star. But in reality Triton, Neptune’s strange and huge Moon, is blocked by Webb’s famous diffraction peaks.