The latest images of Jupiter captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have stunned scientists. The fascinating images show incredibly sharp Rainbow auroras, giant storms, and far-off galaxies “photobombing” in the background, according to NASA.
Imke de Pater, a planetary astronomer and professor emerita at the University of California, Berkeley, along with professor Thierry Fouchet from the Paris Observatory, led observations of the largest planet in our solar system using the Webb telescope, NASA said.
“We hadn’t really expected it to be this good, to be honest,” de Pater said in a news release.
“The numerous bright white ‘spots’ and ‘streaks’ are likely very high-altitude cloud tops of condensed convective storms,” said space scientist and vice president for science at the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Heidi Hammel.
Jupiter’s famous Great Red Spot —a storm big enough to engulf Earth— appears white in these images.
But Jupiter isn’t Webb’s only subject. The telescope is also discovering and observing exoplanetary systems, which each consists of a planet outside of our solar system and its host star.
Some of these exoplanets are potentially habitable, and peering into their atmosphere could uncover clues in the ongoing search for life outside of Earth.
RELATED: Listen to the INCREDIBLE AUDIO RECORDINGS Sent By 2 Russian Probes From Venus.
