A photo taken by the short-wavelength filter of the telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument (above) clearly shows the distinct bands of the gas giant and its moon Europa. The Great Red Spot is also perfectly visible, although it appears white due to the way the image was processed. When the NIRCam instrument’s 2.12 micron filter was used, the resulting image showed the Jovian moons Europa, Thebe, Metis and even Europa’s shadow near the Great Red Spot. And when the team used NIRCam’s 3.23 micron filter, the resulting image captured some of Jupiter’s rings, as you can see below: James Webb Bryan Holler, one of the scientists who helped design these observations, said: “Combined with the deep-field images released the other day, these images of Jupiter show a complete understanding of what Webb can observe, from the faintest, most distant observable galaxies to planets in our cosmic backyard that you can see with the naked eye from your real yard”. Notably, James Webb recorded these images moving across his field of view in three separate observations, proving that he is capable of finding and tracking stars near a celestial body as bright as Jupiter. This means it can be used to study moons in our solar system and could give us the first images of the plumes of material known to be ejected from natural satellites such as Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus. The team also tracked asteroids in the asteroid belt to figure out the fastest objects it can observe. They found that it can still gather data from objects moving at up to 67 milliseconds per second in its field of view. NASA says that’s the equivalent of watching a turtle move from a mile away. As Stefanie Milam, James Webb’s associate project scientist, said, these images show that “everything was working perfectly.” We can expect not only more impressively detailed images of space in the future, but also information that could shed more light on how the first galaxies formed.
title: “James Webb Telescope Can Take Detailed Pictures Of Our Solar System S Planets And Moons " ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-16” author: “Joseph Murphy”
A photo taken by the short-wavelength filter of the telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument (above) clearly shows the distinct bands of the gas giant and its moon Europa. The Great Red Spot is also perfectly visible, although it appears white due to the way the image was processed. When the NIRCam instrument’s 2.12 micron filter was used, the resulting image showed the Jovian moons Europa, Thebe, Metis and even Europa’s shadow near the Great Red Spot. And when the team used NIRCam’s 3.23 micron filter, the resulting image captured some of Jupiter’s rings, as you can see below: NASA, ESA, CSA and B. Holler and J. Stansberry (STScI) Bryan Holler, one of the scientists who helped design these observations, said: “Combined with the deep-field images released the other day, these images of Jupiter show a complete understanding of what Webb can observe, from the faintest, most distant observable galaxies to planets in our cosmic backyard that you can see with the naked eye from your real yard”. Notably, James Webb recorded these images moving across his field of view in three separate observations, proving that he is capable of finding and tracking stars near a celestial body as bright as Jupiter. This means it can be used to study moons in our solar system and could give us the first images of the plumes of material known to be ejected from natural satellites such as Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus. The team also tracked asteroids in the asteroid belt to figure out the fastest objects it can observe. They found that it can still gather data from objects moving at up to 67 milliseconds per second in its field of view. NASA says that’s the equivalent of watching a turtle move from a mile away. As Stefanie Milam, James Webb’s associate project scientist, said, these images show that “everything was working perfectly.” We can expect not only more impressively detailed images of space in the future, but also information that could shed more light on how the first galaxies formed. All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories contain affiliate links. If you purchase something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
