![]() One of its moons is named after Despina, who, in Greek mythology, is one of Neptune's daughters. Neptune has 14 known moons made of rock and ice.Storms on Neptune can last anywhere from a few weeks to hundreds of years.Neptune's atmosphere gradually becomes liquid and then an icy core. There is no solid ground on Neptune like there is on Earth.Astronomers believe that Neptune's core may be as hot as the surface of the sun.Pluto's orbit sometimes crosses Neptune's orbit, but they never collide.In contrast to Earth's 24-hour day, Neptune has a 16-hour day.The planet Neptune is named after the Roman god of the sea because the blue planet reminded astronomers of Earth's oceans.Webb is an international partnership between NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).Neptune's moons are also named after Greek and Roman water gods ESA also provided the workhorse spectrograph NIRSpec and 50% of the mid-infrared instrument MIRI, which was designed and built by a consortium of nationally funded European Institutes (The MIRI European Consortium) in partnership with JPL and the University of Arizona. Working with partners, ESA was responsible for the development and qualification of Ariane 5 adaptations for the Webb mission and for the procurement of the launch service by Arianespace. Under an international collaboration agreement, ESA provided the telescope’s launch service, using the Ariane 5 launch vehicle. Webb is the largest, most powerful telescope ever launched into space. Additional Webb studies of both Triton and Neptune are planned in the coming year. Triton orbits Neptune in a bizarre backward (retrograde) orbit, leading astronomers to speculate that this moon was actually a Kuiper Belt object that was gravitationally captured by Neptune. It far outshines Neptune because the planet’s atmosphere is darkened by methane absorption at Webb’s wavelengths. Dominating this Webb portrait of Neptune is a very bright point of light sporting the signature diffraction spikes seen in many of Webb’s images it’s not a star, but Neptune’s most unusual moon, Triton.Ĭovered in a frozen sheen of condensed nitrogen, Triton reflects an average of 70 percent of the sunlight that hits it. Webb also captured seven of Neptune’s 14 known moons. A previously-known vortex at the southern pole is evident in Webb’s view, but for the first time Webb has revealed a continuous band of clouds surrounding it. Neptune’s 164-year orbit means its northern pole, at the top of this image, is just out of view for astronomers, but the Webb images hint at an intriguing brightness in that area. The atmosphere descends and warms at the equator, and thus glows at infrared wavelengths more than the surrounding, cooler gases. More subtly, a thin line of brightness circling the planet’s equator could be a visual signature of global atmospheric circulation that powers Neptune’s winds and storms. Images from other observatories have recorded these rapidly-evolving cloud features over the years. Such methane-ice clouds are prominent as bright streaks and spots, which reflect sunlight before it is absorbed by methane gas. In fact, the methane gas is so strongly absorbing that the planet is quite dark at Webb wavelengths except where high-altitude clouds are present. Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) captures objects in the near-infrared range from 0.6 to 5 microns, so Neptune does not appear blue to Webb. ![]() ![]() This is readily apparent in Neptune’s signature blue appearance in NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope images at visible wavelengths, caused by small amounts of gaseous methane. Compared to the gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn, Neptune is much richer in elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. This planet is characterised as an ice giant due to the chemical make-up of its interior. At that extreme distance, the Sun is so small and faint that high noon on Neptune is similar to a dim twilight on Earth. Located 30 times farther from the Sun than Earth, Neptune orbits in one of the dimmest areas of our Solar System. Neptune has fascinated and perplexed researchers since its discovery in 1846. Webb’s extremely stable and precise image quality also permits these very faint rings to be detected so close to Neptune. In addition to several bright narrow rings, the Webb images clearly show Neptune’s fainter dust bands. Most striking about Webb’s new image is the crisp view of the planet’s dynamic rings - some of which haven’t been seen at all, let alone with this clarity, since the Voyager 2 flyby in 1989. Not only has Webb captured the clearest view of this peculiar planet’s rings in more than 30 years, but its cameras are also revealing the ice giant in a whole new light. The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope is showing off its capabilities closer to home with its first image of Neptune.
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