(ORDO NEWS) — NASA has published new images of the most distant planet in the solar system, which were taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.
Until now, scientists had only pictures of Neptune and its rings, which were taken by the Voyager 2 probe 32 years ago when it approached this planet in August 1989.
A new portrait of the distant gas giant has been captured using the space telescope’s near-infrared camera NIRCam.
Because the methane gas in Neptune’s atmosphere strongly absorbs red and infrared light, the planet appears dark.
The exception is clouds made of methane ice, which reflect sunlight. They look like bright stripes and spots.
James Webb was also able to capture seven of the fourteen moons of Neptune, among which Triton stands out (the light reflected from it makes the satellite look like a star).
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