Galaxies Photobomb Latest James Webb Space Telescope Images of Jupiter

The James Webb Space Telescope continues to impress with two new images showing off Jupiter’s polar auroras, extremely faint rings, two moons, and photobombing galaxies.

The images were captured using the telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), which takes advantage of three specialized infrared filters to capture the planet’s intricate details. The telescope captured the wavelength data, which was then translated into images with the help of citizen scientist Judy Schmidt(Opens in a new window).

(Credit: NASA, ESA, Jupiter ERS Team; image processing by Ricardo Hueso (UPV/EHU) and Judy Schmidt)

As you can see, Webb picked up details(Opens in a new window) of the Northern and Southern auroras, but also Jupiter’s rings, which are a million times fainter than the planet. You can also see the two tiny moons called Amalthea and Adrastea. The description alongside the images on the ESA Webb website explains that “the fuzzy spots in the lower background are likely galaxies “photobombing” this Jovian view.” The second image(Opens in a new window) is a close-up view of the planet.

The James Webb Space Telescope has impressed everyone since the first batch of images were released back in July. We’ve got to see cartwheel galaxies, cosmic cliffs, and Stephan’s Quintent, and we can’t wait to see what comes next. For the full library of images, head on over to the ESA Webb image library(Opens in a new window).