NASA James Webb Space Telescope Jupiter New Images

Now, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has captured new images of Jupiter. The telescope's observations of Jupiter will give scientists even more clues about the planet's inner life.

"It's really remarkable that we can see details on Jupiter in an image with its rings, small moons (satellites) and even galaxies" -said planetary astronomer Imke de Pater, professor emerita of the University of California.

Two images of Jupiter come from the observatory's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), which has three special infrared filters that display details of the planet.

In a standalone view of Jupiter created from a composite of several images from James Webb, the aurora extends to high altitude above both Jupiter's north and south poles.

The auroras shine in a filter that is mapped to red hues, which also illuminates the light reflected from the lower clouds and upper haze. A separate filter, mapped to yellow and green, shows haze moving around the north and south poles. A third filter, mapped to the blues, shows light that is reflected from a dark main cloud.

The Great Red Spot, a famous storm that is twice as large as Earth in size, appears as white as other clouds in these views, because they are reflecting too much sunlight.

"The brightness here indicates high altitude - so there are high-altitude haze in the Great Red Spot, as does the equatorial region" -said Heidi Hammel, Webb Interdisciplinary Scientist for Solar System Observation.

In a wide field of view, Webb sees Jupiter with its light rings, which are a million times dimmer than the planet itself. 

Two smaller moons are also visible in the images called Amalthea and Adrastea. The fuzzy spots visible in the lower background are likely 'photobombing' galaxies in this Jovian view.

This one image summarizes the science of our Jupiter System Program, which studies the dynamics and chemistry of Jupiter, its rings and its satellite system.

Researchers have begun analyzing James Webb data to obtain new science results about Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system.

"It is very difficult to gather information about more distant cosmic wonders like Jupiter. It rotates very fast. Combining a stack of images into a single scene can be challenging," said Judy Schmidt of Modesto Calif.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the largest, most powerful and most complex space science telescope ever built in the world. 

Webb will solve the mysteries of our solar system, look at distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it.

James Webb is an international mission led by NASA with its partners ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

Data from telescopes like Webb doesn't come to Earth neatly packaged. Instead, it contains information about the brightness of the light on Webb's detectors. 

This information comes in the form of raw data at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), Webb's mission and science operations center.

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