“We’ve never seen Jupiter like this”: James Webb releases surprising new images

Captured on 27 July, the infrared images – artificially coloured to make specific features stand out – show fine filigree along the edges of the coloured bands and around the Great Red Spot and also provide an unprecedented view of the auroras over the north and south poles.

One wide-field image presents a unique line-up of the planet, its faint rings and two of Jupiter’s smaller satellites – Amalthea and Adrastea – against a background of galaxies.

“We’ve never seen Jupiter like this. It’s all quite incredible,” said Planetary Astronomer Imke de Pater, Professor Emerita of the University of California, Berkeley, who led the scientific observations of the planet with Thierry Fouchet, Professor at the Paris Observatory. 

“We hadn’t really expected it to be this good, to be honest. It’s really remarkable that we can see details on Jupiter together with its rings, tiny satellites and even galaxies in one image.”

De Pater, Fouchet and their team released the images on 22 August as part of the telescope’s Early Release Science programme. 

In addition to the enormous storm referred to as the Great Red Spot, numerous storm systems – seen as small pallid ovals – are also visible, as are tiny bright plumes of cloud particles. The transition between organised zonal flows and the chaotic vortex patterns at higher latitudes is also clearly visible.

“Although we have seen many of these features on Jupiter before, JWST’s infrared wavelengths give us a new perspective,” said de Pater. 

“JWST’s combination of images and spectra at near- and mid-infrared wavelengths will allow us to study the interplay of dynamics, chemistry and temperature structure in and above the Great Red Spot and the auroral regions.”

Amalthea and Adrastea
JWST’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) also captured a wide-field view of Jupiter revealing its rings and two of its moons.
“This image illustrates the sensitivity and dynamic range of JWST’s NIRCam instrument,” Fouchet said.

“It reveals the bright waves, swirls and vortices in Jupiter’s atmosphere and simultaneously captures the dark ring system, one million times fainter than the planet, as well as the moons Amalthea and Adrastea, which are roughly 200 and 20 kilometres across, respectively. 

“This one image sums up the science of our Jupiter system program, which studies the dynamics and chemistry of Jupiter itself, its rings and its satellite system.”

Spectroscopic observations of Jupiter’s auroras are scheduled for later this year, while detailed spectroscopic observations of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot were taken on 27 July in the near-infrared and August 14-15 at mid-infrared wavelengths. 


(Image credits
Image 1: NASA, European Space Agency, Jupiter Early Release Science team. Image processing: Judy Schmidt
Image 2: NASA, European Space Agency, Jupiter Early Release Science team. Image processing: Ricardo Hueso [UPV/EHU] and Judy Schmidt)