The newly deployed James Webb Space Telescope has once again turned its attention to planets closer to home, capturing Neptune in a remarkable way.
The newly deployed James Webb Space Telescope has captured the clearest view of Neptune in decades.
The most powerful space telescope ever built, which launched at the end of 2021, used its infrared imaging capabilities to show the distant planet in a fresh light. Features include Neptune’s prominent narrow rings and fainter dust bands, which NASA says have not been detected since 1989 when Voyager 2 passed close by.
“It has been three decades since we last saw these faint, dusty rings, and this is the first time we’ve seen them in the infrared,” Heidi Hammel, a Neptune system expert and interdisciplinary scientist for Webb, said on NASA’s website.
Neptune is located in the outer solar system, 30 times further from the sun than Earth, and was discovered by astronomers in 1846.
