The clearest Neptune ever photographed
The James Webb Space Telescope has once again captured a beautiful and sophisticated look inside the celestial bodies of the Solar System. The European Space Agency (ESA) says the last image of Neptune taken this time has a thin ring and is the sharpest image since 1989.
Because Neptune is so far away, it was discovered in 1846 and became the outermost planet in the solar system in 2006, when Pluto was relegated to a quasi-planet. This image was taken with a near infrared camera, NIRCam, and the structure of Neptune’s rings was captured correctly. According to ESA, the ring was first observed during an overflight of Voyager 2 in 1989.
Although 30 years have passed since the last observation of this faint and dusty link, NASA claims to have seen it for the first time in infrared light. Classified as a giant ice planet, Neptune appears pale blue when viewed in visible light due to its abundance of hydrogen, helium and methane. But in the new near-infrared image, Neptune appears dark because methane absorbs most of the red light. The bright spots visible on the surface are high-altitude clouds that reflect sunlight before being absorbed by planetary methane. In addition, the James Webb Space Telescope was able to observe seven of the 14 satellites, including Triton, Galatea, Naiad, Tarasa, Larisa, Despina and Proteus. Relative content this placecan be registered
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