Saturn is the planet most people associate with spectacular rings.
But a new image of Neptune, taken by NASA’s James Webb Super Space Telescope, gives its rival a fair shot.
The $10bn (£7.4bn) observatory has revealed the ice giant in a whole new light, after capturing the clearest view of the distant planet’s rings in more than 30 years.
Not since Voyager 2 flew past Neptune in 1989 has it been photographed in such incredible detail.
In addition to several bright, narrow rings, Webb’s image clearly shows the planet’s fainter dust lanes.
“It’s been three decades since we last saw these faint, dusty rings, and this is the first time we’ve seen them in the infrared,” said Heidi Hammel, a Neptune system expert and Webb interdisciplinary scientist.
Beyond the planet itself are seven of the giant’s 14 moons, the most important of which is Triton. This looks almost like a star because Neptune is obscured from Webb’s view by methane absorption at infrared wavelengths.
Fascinating: The James Webb Space Telescope has captured the clearest view of Neptune’s rings in over 30 years
Beyond the planet itself are seven of the giant’s 14 moons, the most important of which is Triton. This looks almost like a star (top) because Neptune is obscured in Webb’s view by methane absorption at infrared wavelengths.
However, Triton reflects an average of 70 percent of the sunlight that strikes its icy surface, making it extremely bright.
Located 30 times farther from the sun than Earth, Neptune orbits in the remote and dark region of the outer solar system.
Compared to the gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn, it is much richer in elements heavier than hydrogen and helium.
This is readily apparent in Neptune’s characteristic blue appearance in Hubble Space Telescope images at visible wavelengths, caused by small amounts of gaseous methane.
Webb’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) takes images of objects in the near infrared range from 0.6 to 5 microns, so Neptune does not appear blue to the observatory.
In fact, methane gas absorbs red and infrared light so strongly that the planet is quite dark at these near-infrared wavelengths, except where there are high-altitude clouds.
These methane ice clouds stand out as bright streaks and dots, reflecting sunlight before it is absorbed by methane gas.
Images from other observatories, including the Hubble Space Telescope and the WM Keck Observatory, have recorded these rapidly evolving cloud features over the years.
More subtly, a thin line of brightness encircling the planet’s equator could be a visual signature of the global atmospheric circulation that drives Neptune’s winds and storms.
The atmosphere sinks and heats up at the equator and therefore shines at infrared wavelengths more than the cooler gases around it.
Neptune’s 164-year orbit means its north pole, at the top of this image, is out of sight for astronomers, but the Webb images hint at an intriguing glow in that area.
Webb’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) captures images of objects in the 0.6 to 5 micron near infrared range, so Neptune does not appear blue to the observatory
A previously known vortex at the south pole is evident in Webb’s view, but for the first time Webb has revealed a continuous band of high-latitude clouds surrounding it.
Triton outshines Neptune in this image because the planet’s atmosphere is obscured by methane absorption at these near-infrared wavelengths.
Triton orbits Neptune in an unusual backward (retrograde) orbit, leading astronomers to speculate that this moon was originally a Kuiper belt object that was gravitationally captured by Neptune.
NASA has said that additional Webb studies of Triton and Neptune are planned for next year.
Webb’s infrared capabilities mean it can ‘see back in time’ up to 100-200 million years from the Big Bang, allowing it to take pictures of the first stars that shone in the universe more than 13.5 billion years ago.
In visible light, Neptune appears blue due to the small amounts of methane gas in its atmosphere. Instead, Webb’s NIRCam instrument observed Neptune at near-infrared wavelengths, so Neptune doesn’t look as blue.
The $10bn (£7.4bn) James Webb Observatory (pictured) has revealed Neptune in a whole new light, after capturing the clearest view of the distant planet’s rings in over 30 years.
The James Webb Telescope: NASA’s $10 billion telescope is designed to detect light from the first stars and galaxies.
The James Webb Telescope has been described as a ‘time machine’ that could help unlock the secrets of our universe.
The telescope will be used to observe the first galaxies born in the early universe more than 13.5 billion years ago and to observe the sources of stars, exoplanets and even the moons and planets of our solar system.
The large telescope, which has already cost more than $7bn (£5bn), is seen as a successor to the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope.
The James Webb Telescope and most of its instruments have an operating temperature of about 40 Kelvin, about minus 387 Fahrenheit (minus 233 Celsius).
It is the largest and most powerful orbiting space telescope in the world, capable of looking back 100-200 million years after the Big Bang.
The orbiting infrared observatory is designed to be about 100 times more powerful than its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope.
NASA likes to think of James Webb as a successor to Hubble rather than a replacement, as the two will be working together for a while.
The Hubble Telescope was launched on April 24, 1990 via the Space Shuttle Discovery from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
It circles the Earth at a speed of about 17,000 mph (27,300 kph) in low Earth orbit at about 340 miles in altitude.
