Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope captures the glowing rings of Saturn
Nasa's James Webb Telescope has taken a new image of Saturn's rings which can be seen glowing
In the latest photo captured by Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope, Saturn's icy rings are glowing. The new image is the first near-infrared observation of the planet, according to the US space agency Nasa. Along with the rings, the telescope also captured three of Saturn's moons. The image was captured on 26 June.
In the image captured as part of the Webb Guaranteed Time Observation program, Saturn appears extremely dark, but the icy rings are bright. The methane gas absorbs most of the sunlight in the atmosphere. The Webb image presents Saturn's ring system in detail and its three moons--Dione, Enceladus, and Tethys, according to Nasa's press statement.
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Saturn's rings contain various rocky and icy fragments, and the size ranges from particles smaller than a grain of salt to objects as large as the mountains on Earth, the Nasa statement explains. "We look forward to digging into the deep exposures to see what discoveries may await," Matthew Tiscareno, a senior research scientist at the SETI Institute, said in a statement, according to a report by the Associated Press.
Notably, this is the first time that Saturn's atmosphere has been captured with this clarity at this specific wavelength (3.23 microns), Nasa said in its statement. Webb's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) captures objects in the near-infrared range from 0.6 to 5 microns.
In September 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope took the first image of Neptune. The clarity of the image made it possible for astronomers to see its rings after more than three decades.
Neptune's rings were last detected by Nasa's Voyager 2, which was the first spacecraft to observe the planet in 1989. The latest photo by Webb also showed Neptune's fainter dust bands, according to Nasa's press statement.
The latest photo of Saturn's rings has excited astronomers as it showed off the remarkable capabilities of the Webb telescope. Further deeper exposures will enable the team to explore more of Saturn's fainter rings.
Earlier this month, one of Saturn's moons grabbed the world's attention. In a study published in the journal Nature, scientists revealed that phosphate, an essential to life, had been discovered in Enceladus' ocean. Scientists have called this the "first finding of phosphorus on an extraterrestrial ocean world", a Press Trust of India report said.
(with inputs from agencies)
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First Published:3 Jul 2023, 06:00 PM IST
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