Astronomy Picture of the Day - Ringed Ice Giant Neptune

NASA ^ | 19 Aug, 2023 | Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, NIRCam

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: Ringed ice giant Neptune lies near the center of this sharp near-infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope. The dim and distant world is the farthest planet from the Sun, about 30 times farther away than planet Earth. But in the stunning Webb view, the planet's dark and ghostly appearance is due to atmospheric methane that absorbs infrared light. High altitude clouds that reach above most of Neptune's absorbing methane easily stand out in the image though. Coated with frozen nitrogen, Neptune's largest moon Triton is brighter than Neptune in reflected sunlight, seen at the upper left sporting the Webb telescope's characteristic diffraction spikes. Including Triton, seven of Neptune's 14 known moons can be identified in the field of view. Neptune's faint rings are striking in this space-based planetary portrait. Details of the complex ring system are seen here for the first time since Neptune was visited by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in August 1989.

[MtnClimber]

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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list.

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

[Boardwalk]

Spectacular.

[blueunicorn6]

Why is Neptune always mooning us?

[MtnClimber]

Tis better to be mooned by Neptune than by Hunter or Joe. Or so I have heard.

[null and void]

That’s Uranus.

[NeverTyranny]

Absolutely gorgeous.

[Noumenon]

It is not. I’ve never consented to... Never mind.

[sjmjax]

If I’m reading that correctly, why did it take 34 years for us to see this fly-by photo? Was it part of the “who killed JFK conspiracy”?

[verum ago]

If I’m reading that correctly, why did it take 34 years for us to see this fly-by photo? Was it part of the “who killed JFK conspiracy”?

You didn't read it correctly. This sin't a fly-by photo. This image is from the James Webb telescope, which is the one launched about a year and a half ago.

The blurb at the tail end of the article is merely stating that this is the first time we've gotten an image of all of Neptune's ring system as a whole since Voyager 2 passed by in '89 (Hubble and ground-based telescopes can only pick up the brightest components), and even then only with difficulty.

[verum ago]

My and parenthesis should be at the very end, enclosing the part about difficulty and tying it to Hubble and ground-based telescopes. Oops.

[sjmjax]

Thanks for the clarification.

[spel_grammer_an_punct_polise]

I was unaware that Neptune has rings. Learn something new every day.

[verum ago]

I've addressed this to you, but really it's meant for anyone:

An image like this shows the utility of the Webb telescope's infrared capabilities. Hubble can't produce an image like this. But that's not because Webb has significantly better resolution- it doesn't; they're about the same- but because relatively "cold" features like Neptune's rings and clouds show up much better in the infrared portion of the spectrum. Hubble is optimized for visible and ultraviolet, with a smidge of near-infrared.

A lot of the finer structures of the universe are cold and show up better in infrared, or are behind dust that allows infrared to pass but not smaller wavelengths, and many of the oldest structures emitted visible light that has been redshifted into the infrared. The JWST should be able to "see" a lot that Hubble can't, in addition to complementing it by providing further spectra on that which it can.

Exciting times!

[telescope115]

It’s also nice that they got Webb right the first time, instead of screwing up Hubble’s optics as bad as they did.

[No name given]

Wow.

[Disambiguator]

So there is a Webb telescope and a Hubble telescope?

There’s a conspiracy involving Chelsea Clinton in there somewhere.

[hoagy62]

That’s sick, wrong....and kinda funny

[SunkenCiv]

The last development will be the “Howdy Doody in Drag Orbiting Observatory”, a few years from now.