JAKARTA - NASA, on August 22, has shared two new images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) that capture the stunning aurora shining around Jupiter's north and south poles caused by fluctuations in the planet's magnetic field.
As Jupiter spins, it drags on its magnetic field which is being bombarded by particles of the solar wind. This is a process similar to how the solar wind creates the incredible auroras on Earth.
Along with the glowing poles, the image shows incredible detail of the turbulent atmosphere, the rings around the planet and some of Jupiter's 79 moons can be seen shining around the giant planet.
Astronomers working with JWST were just as surprised to see the amazing detail in this image. While astronomer Imke de Pater said he and his team did not expect the results to be this good.
Giant news from a giant planet!@NASAWebb captured a new view of Jupiter in infrared light, uncovering clues to the planet's inner life. Two moons, rings, and distant galaxies are visible. Get the details: https://t.co/6WKbAQY78z pic.twitter.com/9uaACCPGyU
— NASA (@NASA) August 22, 2022
"It's amazing that we can see the details of Jupiter along with its rings, tiny satellites, and even galaxies in one image," said de Pater, who is also a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
The images were taken with the telescope's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), which is capable of detecting light from the earliest stars and galaxies.
JWST uses a variety of infrared light to 'see' back in time, which is done by analyzing the time it takes the light to travel through space. And it uses three special infrared filters to reveal Jupiter's stunning details.
Infrared light is invisible to the human eye, but it is mapped onto the visible spectrum, the range of wavelengths that we can see.
One image, which shows Jupiter alone, is a composite of several images and shows the aurora blowing in bright orange, yellow and green over Jupiter's north and south poles.
The Great Red Spot, a famous storm so large that it could swallow the Earth, appears white in this view, like other clouds, because it reflects a lot of sunlight.
"The brightness here indicates high altitude, so the Great Red Spot has high altitude fog, as does the equatorial region," said Heidi Hammel, Webb interdisciplinary scientist for solar system observations and vice president for science at the Association of Universities for Astronomical Research.
“The many bright white 'dots' and 'lines' most likely represent very high cloud tops from a convective storm condensing.' In contrast, the dark band north of the equator has less cloud cover," he added.
The rings surrounding the massive planet can be seen in the image, along with two smaller moons called Amalthea and Adrastea. The blurred spots in the lower background are likely the 'photobombing' galaxy in this Jovian view.
"This one image summarizes the science of our Jupiter system program, which studies the dynamics and chemistry of Jupiter itself, its rings, and its satellite system," said Thierry Fouchet, a professor at the Paris Observatory, who is part of an international collaboration for the Webb Early Release Science Program.
NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), which built the $10 billion successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, rocketed late last year and have been observing the cosmos in infrared since this summer.
Scientists hope to see the dawn of the universe with the Webb telescope, and peer back into the time when the first stars and galaxies formed 13.7 billion years ago.
JWST released another image of Jupiter in July, which shows the gas giant glowing orange and red, while also detailing its rings and three moons: Europa, Thebe and Metis.
Shortly after these images were released, astronomers had announced that the telescope may have captured its first supernova, which is the 'last hurray' that occurs when a star runs out of fuel.
This causes a pressure drop, whereby the cosmic object expands to at least five times the mass of our sun, which is about 333,000 times that of Earth, and then explodes, releasing tons of debris and particles.
The image shows a bright light three billion light-years from Earth that was not in the galaxy image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2011.
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