The James Webb Space Telescope is the first moon of Saturn and Uranus again I turned towardsto make infrared observations of the planet for the first time.
On June 25, 2023, Webb took the following image of the sixth planet in our solar system, using the NIRCam (Near Infrared Camera) instrument. Saturn itself appears very dark at said wavelength, because methane gas absorbs almost all of the sunlight falling on the atmosphere. On the other hand, its icy rings remain relatively light, which leads to this unusual appearance.
As we can see, the details of the planet’s circular system, as well as its three moons, are made excellently noticeable; Dione, Enceladus, and Tethys. In terms of the atmosphere, this was the first time such clarity had been observed at this particular wavelength (3.23 microns).
When comparing the north and south poles of the planet, the differences in appearance are striking. The first is dominated by the summer season, and the other by the winter, which is already drawing to a close. However, the Arctic is particularly dark, which the researchers attribute to an unknown seasonal process. The slight brightness observed at the edge of Saturn’s disk is caused by the fluorescence of methane in the upper atmosphere (a process that emits light after light is absorbed), H in the ionosphere3+ emissions, or even both.
