The Great Red Spot, a famous storm so big it could swallow Earth, appears white in these views, as do other clouds, because they are reflecting a lot of sunlight. A third filter, mapped to blues, showcases light that is reflected from a deeper main cloud. A different filter, mapped to yellows and greens, shows hazes swirling around the northern and southern poles. The auroras shine in a filter that is mapped to redder colors, which also highlights light reflected from lower clouds and upper hazes. In the standalone view of Jupiter, created from a composite of several images from Webb, auroras extend to high altitudes above both the northern and southern poles of Jupiter. Scientists collaborated with citizen scientist Judy Schmidt to translate the Webb data into images. Generally, the longest wavelengths appear redder and the shortest wavelengths are shown as more blue. Since infrared light is invisible to the human eye, the light has been mapped onto the visible spectrum. The two images come from the observatory’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), which has three specialized infrared filters that showcase details of the planet. “It’s really remarkable that we can see details on Jupiter together with its rings, tiny satellites, and even galaxies in one image,” she said.
Webb itself is an international mission led by NASA with its partners ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). De Pater led the observations of Jupiter with Thierry Fouchet, a professor at the Paris Observatory, as part of an international collaboration for Webb’s Early Release Science program.
“We hadn’t really expected it to be this good, to be honest,” said planetary astronomer Imke de Pater, professor emerita of the University of California, Berkeley. Webb’s Jupiter observations will give scientists even more clues to Jupiter’s inner life. Now, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured new images of the planet. With giant storms, powerful winds, auroras, and extreme temperature and pressure conditions, Jupiter has a lot going on. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team image processing by Judy Schmidt. Webb NIRCam composite image of Jupiter from three filters – F360M (red), F212N (yellow-green), and F150W2 (cyan) – and alignment due to the planet’s rotation.
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