James Webb Space Telescope captures clearest images of Neptune rings after over 30 years

NASA had sent the Voyager 2 to investigate the outer planets of our solar system. The spacecraft passed about 4,950 km above the north pole of Neptune. Voyager 2 is still navigating away from Earth even after 45 years of its launch, Hindustan Times reported.

The latest images captured by James Webb Space Telescope provide more clarity and reveal features that were undetected by Voyager 2. Apart from the narrow rings, the Webb image also captures the planet’s fainter dust bands, the space agency said. This is also the first time that the rings of the planet are viewed in infrared light.

“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,” Neptune system expert and interdisciplinary scientist for Webb Heidi Hammel said.

Earlier, images from the Hubble space telescope revealed Neptune’s signature blue appearance. However, the planet does not appear blue in Webb’s images.

Neptune is made up of a methane-rich atmosphere. The planet’s blue colour comes from the absorption of red light by methane. The process is the same as the Rayleigh-scattering process that makes the Earth’s sky appear blue.

Webb's telescope, however, does not operate in the visible light spectrum. The telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) works in the near-infrared range from 0.6 to 5 microns. Hence, Neptune does not appear blue in Webb cameras. The planet’s methane gas strongly absorbs red and infrared light, making the planet appear dark at these near-infrared wavelengths, except when there are high-altitude clouds. The methane-ice clouds appear as bright streaks and spots.

The images have also captured seven of Neptune’s 14 known moons.