CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Saturn has a fresh new look thanks to NASA’s Webb Space Telescope.
The gas giant is dark in the latest photo by Webb, released Friday, but its icy rings are glowing.
Webb snapped the picture in the infrared last weekend. At this wavelength, the planet appears dark because sunlight is absorbed by methane in the atmosphere. But the icy rings remain bright.
The planet Saturn and three of its moons, from left, Enceladus, Tethys and Dione, captured by the James Webb Space Telescope this month. In infrared, the planet appears dark because sunlight is absorbed by methane in the atmosphere.
Three of Saturn’s many moons also got caught on camera.
Scientists are thrilled with this latest shot, which captures Saturn's atmosphere in detail. They hope to uncover new ring structures as well as any new, faint moons that might be lurking there.
“We look forward to digging into the deep exposures to see what discoveries may await," Matthew Tiscareno, a senior research scientist at the SETI Institute, said in a statement.
This image was taken as part of the Webb Guaranteed Time Observation program 1247 and “shows surprising and unexpected detail,” according to NASA, including several very deep exposures of Saturn.
