Webb NIRCam composite image of Jupiter from three filters – F360M (red), F212N (yellow-green), and F150W2 (cyan) – and alignment due to the planet’s rotation. (NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team)
When you think of Jupiter, the fifth planet from our sun as well as the largest, the chances are you imagine it with orange, red, yellow and white swirling bands — as well as its iconic Great Red Spot south of its equator.
Yet as the James Webb Telescope reminds us, these images are as much interpretive as they are objective. In the case of Jupiter, the telescope has three specialized infrared filters that provided new data about Jupiter by measuring different wavelengths of light from the behemoth planet. With the help of a citizen scientist, Judy Schmidt, who translated that data into actual images, NASA scientists were able to compose a shockinly detailed view of Jupiter. You can see auroras, or beautiful light shows that appear in the sky, in Jupiter’s atmosphere. There are crackling storms, sweeping winds and unimaginable heights and lows of temperature. The false-color scheme is wildly different from what a backyard astronomer might see if they were to stare up at Jupiter.
One of the benefits of the James Webb Telescope, and of space telescopes in general, is that they can observe in the infrared part of the spectrum. Because of interference from Earth’s atmosphere, our ground-based telescopes cannot achieve this feat. Hence, these Jupiter photos are literally taken in a “new” light.