NASA has finally released processed and colorized images of Saturn taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWTS). The impressive photos taken with the sophisticated lens are part of experiments testing the sensitivity of its sensors when trying to distinguish bright planets from other opaque bodies.
After the original photos Saturn and its rings, The space agency has officially released a new image of the planet. In it, its three main moons, Enceladus, Dione and Tethys, appear in the infrared spectrum.
NASA explains the strange monochrome tones in the photo. Saturn appears dark because methane gas absorbs all the sunlight it receives, while rings of frozen material reflect electromagnetic waves. JWST’s infrared observations could lead astronomers to discover new moons and other significant fragments in the Saturn system. These findings support hypotheses about the past and future of the sixth planet in the solar system.
After the arrival of Mars, the next priority for NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) is Saturn and Jupiter. They are gas giant planets, but around them orbit moons that fascinate scientists and visionaries of humanity’s future. It revolves around Jupiter Lunar Europe, which presumably has oceans of water on its surface; Saturn has Enceladus, which distributes water into space, and Titan, where it is produced by methane.
A team of scientists from Leicester, England is exploring Saturn with the help of JWST. After this film, there will be scenes focusing on the planet’s ring system and its moons, Epimetheus, Pandora, Palen, and Telesto.
With each observation of Saturn, researchers discover new information about its nature. A few years ago, they discovered that their remarkable ring structure would disappear as the planet itself melted them. A few weeks ago, they determined that the planet must be ringless. Its visual spectacle will be a temporary cosmic state for 100 million years.
The Cassini probe was the last instrument sent by scientists to Saturn. It left Earth in 1997 and officially arrived at Saturn in 2004. All known information about the sixth planet in the solar system comes from this mission. After Cassini’s data-gathering process was completed, scientists decided to destroy the probe to avoid possible contamination of the still-mysterious moons of Saturn. This planet belongs to a select group of the solar system that can be seen from Earth, simply by admiring the night sky.