A new image taken by the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) gave astronomers a very sharp look at the planet’s dynamic rings. However, even the faintest dust bands of Neptune are clearly visible in Webb’s images.
This planet is known to have had rings since the 1960s, but definitive confirmation of their existence was only brought by the Voyager 2 spacecraft, which helped uncover three rings around Neptune. They are very faint and thin and, like Jupiter and Saturn, they are quite dark. Their composition is still unknown, but the data from the Webb telescope could help understand what they are made of and how they formed.
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Why is the planet so dark?
The methane found on Neptune absorbs light very intensely, making the planet appear very dark even at the wavelengths (0.6 to 5 microns) used by Webb. The only exception is places where there are clouds at high altitudes. Such methane-ice clouds are evident as bright streaks and spots that reflect sunlight before it is absorbed by methane.
The Webb telescope also managed to capture seven of Neptune’s fourteen known moons. In this image, the dominant element is not Neptune, but a very bright point of light; but it is not a star, but Triton, the moon of Neptune.
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