NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured its first image of Saturn and its rings on June 25, 2023. When observed with Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), Saturn appears extremely dark at this infrared wavelength because methane gas absorbs almost all of the sunlight falling on the atmosphere.
Saturn’s icy rings remain relatively bright, leading to the bizarre appearance of Saturn in this Webb image. We also see several of the planet’s moons – Dione, Enceladus, and Tethys – while additional deeper exposures (not shown here) will allow the team to study some of the planet’s fainter rings. The poles also appear different because Saturn is currently experiencing northern summertime, with the southern hemisphere emerging from the darkness at the end of a winter.
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Missions like NASA’s Pioneer 11, Voyagers 1 and 2, the Cassini spacecraft, and the Hubble Space Telescope have tracked Saturn’s atmosphere and rings for many decades. These observations from Webb are just a hint at what this observatory will add to Saturn’s story in the coming years as the science team delves deep into the data to prepare peer-reviewed results,” said Thaddeus Cesari, Strategic Communications Specialist at NASA.
