Thursday, September 22, 2022

Neptune

In this Webb image, Neptune resembles a pearl with rings that look like ethereal concentric ovals around it. There are 2 thinner, crisper rings and 2 broader, fainter rings. A few extremely bright patches on the lower half of Neptune represent methane ice clouds. Six tiny white dots, which are six of Neptune’s 14 moons, are scattered among the rings. The background of the image is black.
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

This is a zoomed out view of Neptune, its rings and its moons as captured by Webb. Neptune’s moon Triton, resembling a small teal snowflake, is the central focal point, with a tiny ringed, pearl-like Neptune below and to the right of it. The black background is filled with galaxies, 8-pointed bright objects and dots. A small white spiral galaxy in the bottom left corner is particularly visible.
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

From left to right, the first is labeled as taken by Voyager 2 in 1989. It’s a dark blue sphere with some pale blue or white streaks against a black background. The second is labeled as taken by Hubble in 2021. It’s a fuzzier and paler blue sphere also set against a black background. The third is labeled as taken by Webb in 2022. As seen in infrared light, Neptune resembles a pearl with thin, concentric oval rings.
Credit: Voyager: NASA/JPL-Caltech, Hubble: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), and M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley) and the OPAL team, Webb: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Neptune system with some moons and rings annotated (Triton and Proteus are outside this field).
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI and Dr Heidi B. Hammel