it’s really exciting to think of the capability and opportunity that we have for observing these kinds of objects in our solar system.” Two more new views of Jupiter That Jupiter’s rings show up in one of Webb’s first solar system images is “absolutely astonishing and amazing,” said Stefanie Milam, Webb’s deputy project scientist for planetary science based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.“ I couldn’t believe that we saw everything so clearly, and how bright they were.
Data from the Galileo spacecraft that orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003 confirmed that these rings were created by meteoroid impacts on small nearby moons. This has been known since 1979 when NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft imaged them, but they are rarely captured. The above image from Webb’s NIRcam long-wavelength filter also reveals the giant planet’s rings-just like the famously “ringed planet” Saturn. Jupiter and some of its moons-and its rings-are seen through NIRCam’s 3.23 micron filter. However, another image shows something even more spectacular: Jupiter has rings! The NIRCam instrument’s short-wavelength filter shows distinct bands that encircle the planet. The iconic spot appears white in this image because of the way Webb’s infrared image was processed. Its winds are as fast as 425 miles per hour. Rolling counterclockwise between two bands of clouds that are moving in opposite directions toward it, the Great Red Spot is still the biggest in the solar system by far. The Great Red Spot is a 400-years old storm that used to be twice the size of Earth. Meanwhile, the European Space Agency’s JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) will launch in May 2022, arrive in 2029 and take three and a half years to examine Europa as well as two of Jupiter’s other Galilean moons, Ganymede and Callisto.
It may help improve estimates for oxygen and other ingredients for life on the icy moon. NASA’s Europa Clipper mission will launch in October 2024 and arrive in late 2027 to perform about 45 flybys, in each pass photographing the moon’s icy surface in high resolution.
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