时间:2024-09-20 08:58:33 来源:网络整理编辑:百科
Of all the nearby planets, Saturn is most famous for its prominent rings. But NASA's James Webb Spac
Of all the nearby planets, Saturn is most famous for its prominent rings. But NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is reminding astronomers that Neptune's got bling, too.
A new telescope image shows Neptune, which often looks like a gigantic blue ball on an opaque background of blank space, as a darkened sphere with delicate hoops of dust and a scattering of moons. As with all of Webb's photos in infrared light (a type of light that's invisible to our eyes), it is surrounded by never-before-seen galaxies billions of light-years away.
Astronomers say the new photo is the clearest shot of the ice-giant planet taken in more than 30 years. Neptune's ghostly rings, some of which haven't been detected since Voyager 2 spotted them as it flew past in 1989, are on display. The pictures also reveal for the first time a band of clouds around a known vortex at the planet's south pole.
Tweet may have been deleted
Such vivid imagery taken of this solar system demonstrates the $10 billion telescope's ability to collect extraordinary data not just of the distant universe — its main purpose — but of celestial objects closer to home. Scientists believe Webb will unleash a golden age in our understanding of the cosmos.
"Not gonna lie. I ugly-cried when I saw THE FIRST JWST NEPTUNE IMAGES!" said Heidi Hammel, a Webb interdisciplinary scientist and Neptune expert, on Twitter. "'O M G - LOOK AT THE RINGS' I was yelling, making my kids, my mom, even my cats look. More than 20 years in the making, and JWST delivered."
Tweet may have been deleted
Want more scienceand tech news delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newslettertoday.
Unless you're a Pluto truther, Neptune is the most distant planet in the solar system. In fact, even if Pluto were still considered the ninth planet, Neptune is still at times farther from the sun. It takes about 165 years for Neptune to make a loop around the star and is not visible to the naked eye. Yet if Earth were the size of a nickel, the ice giant would be as big as a basketball, according to the Space Telescope Science Institute in Maryland.
It's a dark, blustery world, whipped by winds faster than the speed of sound and only getting a dim twilight's worth of sun at its high noon.
Tweet may have been deleted
In Webb's photo shoot on July 12, the telescope's near-infrared camera captured the planet's turbulent, windy atmosphere. The most prominent features are bright splotches in its lower half that indicate lofty methane ice clouds, according to the institute.
The Hubble Space Telescope's previous pictures of Neptune show the far-flung behemoth as a bright blue sphere because traces of methane gas register blue at visible wavelengths. But because methane strongly absorbs red and infrared light, it seems relatively dark through Webb's eyes.
TopicsNASA
Fyvush Finkel, Emmy winner for 'Picket Fences,' dies at 932024-09-20 08:51
鮮果酸奶慕斯杯的做法2024-09-20 08:45
牛奶香蕉雞蛋羹的做法2024-09-20 08:20
夏威夷茄汁雞扒的做法2024-09-20 08:04
Katy Perry talks 'Rise,' her next batch of songs, and how to survive Twitter2024-09-20 07:48
花生醬黃油小酥餅的做法2024-09-20 07:35
今日賽事:英超(曼聯vs利茲聯)2024-09-20 07:32
阿根廷主帥斯卡洛尼 :已加練點球,足球很美麗也很殘酷(阿根廷隊的主教練)2024-09-20 07:17
One of the most controversial power struggles in media comes to a close2024-09-20 07:11
花生曲奇小餅幹的做法2024-09-20 06:42
Fyvush Finkel, Emmy winner for 'Picket Fences,' dies at 932024-09-20 08:28
蔥香湯藕豬肉餅的做法2024-09-20 08:25
蒜苔炒牛健子肉的做法2024-09-20 08:12
'I Saw the TV Glow' review: Queer horror has a new arthouse masterpiece2024-09-20 08:03
'The Flying Bum' aircraft crashes during second test flight2024-09-20 07:59
黑芝麻杏仁小西餅的做法2024-09-20 07:52
阿根廷主帥斯卡洛尼:已加練點球 ,足球很美麗也很殘酷(阿根廷隊的主教練)2024-09-20 07:00
中式年糕大雜燴!的做法2024-09-20 06:36
Australian football makes history with first LGBT Pride Game2024-09-20 06:31
可可海綿小蛋糕的做法2024-09-20 06:14