Jupiter and its Moons look UNBELIEVABLE in photos taken by NASA Webb space telescope

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is creating waves these days. After stunning us with a peek into the deep cosmos that were previously far beyond our visual reach, the JWST has now taken a quick picture of Jupiter and a couple of its popular Moons. Yes, you might assume that the Webb telescope was meant to take photos of objects billions of light years away but in a bid to check how it can detect near-Earth objects, the spacecraft clicked Jupiter from our solar system. And these are some very unusual photos of the Red Giant – images you may have never thought of.

NASA has silently released data from the telescope’s commissioning period, showing a photo of Jupiter, its moons and several asteroids in our solar system. The data demonstrates Webb’s to track solar system targets and produce images and spectra with unprecedented detail, says NASA in its blogpost.

Webb Space Telescope captures Jupiter

In the photos, Jupiter’s iconic design is visible and space fans will be able to identify all the little details form here. “A view from the NIRCam instrument’s short-wavelength filter shows distinct bands that encircle the planet as well as the Great Red Spot, a storm big enough to swallow the Earth. The iconic spot appears white in this image because of the way Webb’s infrared image was processed,” says NASA.

“Combined with the deep field images released the other day, these images of Jupiter demonstrate the full grasp of what Webb can observe, from the faintest, most distant observable galaxies to planets in our own cosmic backyard that you can see with the naked eye from your actual backyard,” said Bryan Holler, a scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.

“I couldn’t believe that we saw everything so clearly, and how bright they were,” said Stefanie Milam, Webb’s deputy project scientist for planetary science based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “It’s really exciting to think of the capability and opportunity that we have for observing these kinds of objects in our solar system.”

With these images, the JWST has proved that it can observe satellites and rings near the brightest solar system objects. Hence, it could be able to see Europa’s materials leaking into the space, or the rings around these planets.