James Webb Space Telescope captures stunning image of Neptune, rings

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James Webb Space Telescope: NASA's new eye on the universe

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The James Webb Space Telescope has captured Neptune in a whole new light. 

The $10 billion-dollar NASA observatory captured the clearest view of the ice planet's rings in more than 30 years. 

Some of the planet's rings have not been detected since NASA's Voyager 2 conducted its flyby in 1989 – the first spacecraft to observe Neptune. 

The images the Webb team shared show the fainter dust bands, in addition to bright and narrow rings: the first time they have been seen in infrared light. 

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Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera images objects in the near-infrared range from 0.6 to 5 microns, so Neptune does not appear blue to Webb. In fact, the methane gas so strongly absorbs red and infrared light that the planet is quite dark at these near-infrared wavelengths, except where high-altitude clouds are present. Such methane-ice clouds are prominent as bright streaks and spots, which reflect sunlight before it is absorbed by methane gas. (Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI)

Neptune, which orbits in the remote and dark region of the outer solar system, is characterized as an ice giant due to the chemical make-up of its interior. 

In visible light, it appears blue due to small amounts of methane gas in its atmosphere, but Neptune does not appear blue to Webb's Near-Infrared Camera.

"In fact, the methane gas so strongly absorbs red and infrared light that the planet is quite dark at these near-infrared wavelengths, except where high-altitude clouds are present. Such methane-ice clouds are prominent as bright streaks and spots, which reflect sunlight before it is absorbed by methane gas," NASA explained.

The ice giant Neptune and its 14 moons (Credit: NASA Webb Telescope/Twitter)

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In addition, a thin line of brightness around the planet's equator could be a signature of global atmospheric circulation, powering Neptune's winds and storms.

Webb's images also show an "intriguing brightness" in the northern pole and the first indication of high-latitude clouds surrounding a vortex at the southern pole.

The ice giant Neptune and the Triton moon (Credit: NASA Webb Telescope/Twitter)

The telescope also caught a glimpse of Neptune's 14 known moons, including a bright point of light that is the large, unusual moon of Triton. 

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Because Triton is covered in frozen, condensed nitrogen, it reflects 70% of the sunlight that hits it.