James Webb Telescope Reveals First Pictures of Saturn
Miscellaneous / / June 26, 2023
You have never seen such a gas giant before.
The James Webb telescope sent the first pictures of Saturn. The device made them on the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and sent them to Earth, but scientists have not yet gotten to their processing. Thanks to the unofficial site The James Webb Space Telescope Feed we can take a look at the raw images.
Although both Saturn and its rings glow in the infrared and near infrared, the wavelength range is different. Because of this, when using different filters, you can normally see either the planet or the rings.
When using a longer wavelength filter, which allows you to see the details on the rings, Saturn looks almost black.
And this is an example of an image with a shorter wavelength filter. Clouds are visible here on the surface of Saturn, but the rings are overexposed and lost detail.
The light particles that can be seen in the images are noise that will most likely be removed during photo processing.
When processing, experts will bring together several images to get the detail of both Saturn and its rings, and also make the photos in color. However, it is not yet clear how long you will have to wait for the finished images.
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