The James Webb Space Telescope has returned the first highly sensitive infrared images of Mars to Earth. They were taken on September 5, when the space observatory was located at a distance of about 1.6 million km from the Red Planet.
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The images of the visible part of Mars, which at the time of shooting was in front of the telescope, were obtained using the NIRCam near-infrared camera. These images are expected to provide planetary scientists with important data on Earth’s near neighbor that can be used in conjunction with information from rovers and orbiters studying Mars from space.
Since Mars is a relatively close and very bright object for the telescope, it is not easy to observe it with the instruments of James Webb. To prevent the planet’s bright infrared light from blinding the Space Observatory instruments, the observation was carried out by creating very short exposures using specific equipment settings. This meant measuring some of the radiation hitting the telescope’s detectors and then applying special algorithms to analyze the collected data.
During the observation, “James Webb” received spatial resolution images and spectra, which scientists need to study phenomena occurring in the planet’s atmosphere, including dust storms and changes caused by the changing seasons. Furthermore, the telescope in one observation was able to capture what is happening on Mars during the day – during the day, at dusk and at night.
First images of Mars taken by James Webb telescope / Image source: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Mars JWST / GTO team
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The first images of “James Webb” show the eastern hemisphere of the planet in two different intervals. The shorter wavelength image is dominated by reflected sunlight. It also shows details of the planet’s surface. These include, for example, Huygens Crater, a 450-kilometer impact crater and dark volcanic rocks in the Great Sirte Plateau region.
At longer infrared wavelengths, the telescope captures the light emitted by Mars, the brightness of which is related to the temperature of the planet itself and its atmosphere. Brightness decreases towards the polar regions, where there is less sunlight, as well as towards the northern hemisphere, where winter is now in full swing. The data collected by the telescope can provide clues not only to the planet’s temperature, but also to the chemical composition of the atmosphere and the surface of Mars.
NIRSpec spectrograph results / Image source: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Mars JWST / GTO team
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The new images also demonstrate James Webb’s ability to study Mars using spectroscopy, using the observatory’s NIRSpec near-infrared spectrograph. Because chemicals absorb and emit light at very specific wavelengths, scientists can use spectroscopy to study the so-called “fingerprints” left by chemicals in light as it passes through a planet’s atmosphere to determine its composition. With the help of spectroscopy, data on Martian dust, ice clouds, the composition of the atmosphere and the type of rocks on the planet’s surface have already been obtained.
Further observation of Mars using the James Webb telescope is expected to determine the presence of water, carbon dioxide and other chemical compounds on the Red Planet’s surface and atmosphere. Currently, the team of scientists working within this project is preparing a report on the results of the observations made for further expert evaluation of the collected data.
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