Saturn has been photographed like never before by the James Webb Space Telescope

he James Webb Space Telescope It continues to make history after a year of being fully operational in space. It was revealed this week new shots of saturn, using the Near Infrared Spectrometer (NIRSpec), which was shown to the public yesterday in still-unprocessed images.

It comes to images that have not yet been colored, Which provides a black and white image of the planet with the rings in a very special way, like drawing shadows on a white sheet of paper. some stills Displays just one Bright white spot with spikesas if a halogen lamp Shine on reflective cloth.

Although the planet and its rings shine in infrared and near infrared, The range of wavelengths is different. “Saturn’s rings reflect sunlight At two microns, but not at three and five microns. Saturn’s high haze reflects sunlight on one and three microns, to explain NASA regarding Webb notes.

filters used in longer wavelength rangesLeaving the rings sparkling almost cut off from the blackness of space.

Notes done by a team led by planetary scientist Lee Fletcher of the University of Leicester, UK, who hopes to use the NIRSpec data to Learn more about Saturn’s moons and rings. “This means we have a little preview of what will happen when we remove the noise and colorize the images. “We think it will be impressive,” the experts said.

Among the images, those taken with a short-wavelength filter stand out, in which Saturn’s cloud bands can be seen, while the rings shine brightly around the planet’s center.

Once the images are processed, they will be colorized, which is expected to reveal new details about the atmosphere, the rings, and the satellites orbiting Saturn. The camera can also create a new focal point to continue the time domain observations.After the disappearance of the Cassini space probe in 2017.

In their study, they also requested images of specific moons of Saturn, as well as observations with JWST’s Medium Infrared Instrument (MIRI). Since the images are so new, the science is definitely working. We can’t wait to see what it looks like when it’s all polished and shiny, and what new and exciting things Fletcher and his team can discover from it.

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