With giant storms, powerful winds, aurorae, and extreme temperature and pressure conditions, Jupiter has a lot going on. Now, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured new images of the planet. Webb’s Jupiter observations will give scientists even more clues to Jupiter’s inner life.
In this wide-field view, Webb sees Jupiter with its faint rings, which are a million times fainter than the planet, and two tiny moons called Amalthea and Adrastea. The fuzzy spots in the lower background are likely galaxies “photobombing” this Jovian view.
This is a composite image from Webb’s NIRCam instrument (two filters) and was acquired on 27 July 2022.
CREDIT NASA, ESA, Jupiter ERS Team; image processing by Ricardo Hueso (UPV/EHU) and Judy Schmidt
This is gorgeous.
How close to real (naked eye)l is this image coloring?
This is more like what you’d see with the naked eye
Well, the NIRCam is a Near-InfraRed Camera, so it wouldn’t look like that in person.
They usually use shades of red and hues of pink for NIR.