Saturn's rings look gorgeous in 1st James Webb Space Telescope photo of the gas giant

By Mike Wall published about 12 hours ago
A few of Saturn's many moons are visible as well.



Image of Saturn and several of its moons, captured by the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam instrument on June 25, 2023. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, M. Tiscareno (SETI Institute), M. Hedman (University of Idaho), M. El Moutamid (Cornell University), M. Showalter (SETI Institute), L. Fletcher (University of Leicester), H. Hammel (AURA); image processing by J. DePasquale (STScI))


The first official photo of Saturn from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) does not disappoint.

On Friday (June 30), NASA released a stunning JWST image that shows the ringed planet in a whole new light. The photo, captured on June 25 by the observatory's NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument, "is already fascinating researchers," NASA officials said in an image description.

"Saturn itself appears extremely dark at this infrared wavelength observed by the telescope, as methane gas absorbs almost all of the sunlight falling on the atmosphere," they added. "However, the icy rings stay relatively bright, leading to the unusual appearance of Saturn in the Webb image."

The newly released image was captured during a 20-hour-long JWST Saturn-observing campaign. We got a sneak peak at the results of this campaign a few days ago, via raw JWST photos posted to the unofficial website JWST feed. As the new photo shows, processing makes a world of difference.

More:
https://www.space.com/saturn-rings-james-webb-space-telescope-photo-june-2023