The largest and most powerful space telescope in the world has revealed previously unseen views of Jupiter.
In July, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) captured images of the solar system’s largest planet.
The images depict auroras, massive storms, moons, and rings surrounding Jupiter in incredible detail, according to astronomers.
The infrared photographs were artificially coloured to highlight the features.
This is due to the fact that infrared light is invisible to the human eye.
“We’ve never seen Jupiter quite like this before. Everything is incredible, “said Imke de Pater, a planetary astronomer at the University of California who was instrumental in the project.
“To be honest, we didn’t expect it to be this good,” she added.
The JWST is a $10 billion (£8.5 billion) international mission led by Nasa, with partners from the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.
According to Nasa, auroras extended to high altitudes above both Jupiter’s northern and southern poles in the standalone view of Jupiter, which was created from a composite of several images from the telescope. Auroras are skylight displays caused by the Sun.
Meanwhile, the Great Red Spot, a famous storm so large it could swallow the entire planet, turned white. This was due to the fact that it reflected a lot of sunlight.
The JWST was launched in December 2021 and is now approximately one million miles (1.6 million kilometres) from Earth.
It is capable of detecting light that began travelling towards Earth 13 billion years ago, just after the Big Bang.
The JWST, which is regarded as the successor to the famous Hubble telescope, is expected to be a dominant force in discovery for at least the next 20 years.