A new look at Neptune and its rings

by time news
The rings of Neptune, the eighth and most distant planet in the Solar System, are literally illuminated. SPACE TELESCOPE SCIENCE INSTITUT/AFP

DECRYPTION – The Webb Space Telescope observed the planet in the infrared with unparalleled precision.

We never get tired of it: each image published by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) since its official entry into service this summer is a small event. Partly because NASA skilfully distills the clichés, in dribs and drabs. Each new publication is thus a small delicacy which has time to be peacefully digested, keeping our appetite more or less intact. It also prevents us from succumbing to the astronomical Stendhal syndrome which would not fail to strike us before the avalanche of wonders with which the agency could flood us, the telescope having already carried out at least a hundred observations.

But it is also with his entirely new look that Webb always manages to surprise us. After flushing out thousands of distant galaxies and revealing the underside of spectacular nebulae, infrared also offers an unprecedented view of our solar system. At the end of August, Webb thus showed the fine, discreet and delicate rings of dust…

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