Webb infrared image of Jupiter & Europa
Click for full image.
During the commissioning phase after deployment, the James Webb Space Telescope took images of Jupiter and several asteroids in order test the telescope’s instruments. The photo to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, shows both Jupiter and its moon Europa to the left.
Fans of Jupiter will recognize some familiar features of our solar system’s enormous planet in these images seen through Webb’s infrared gaze. 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.
…Clearly visible at left is Europa, a moon with a probable ocean below its thick icy crust, and the target of NASA’s forthcoming Europa Clipper mission. What’s more, Europa’s shadow can be seen to the left of the Great Red Spot. Other visible moons in these images include Thebe and Metis.
The false color differences indicated differences in heat but it is not explained whether brighter is colder or warmer in this photo.. As one of my readers below correctly notes, Europa’s shadow tells us that darker is cooler. This one image shows that the Red Spot and Jupiter’s equatorial regions and poles are generally warm.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Click for full image.
During the commissioning phase after deployment, the James Webb Space Telescope took images of Jupiter and several asteroids in order test the telescope’s instruments. The photo to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, shows both Jupiter and its moon Europa to the left.
Fans of Jupiter will recognize some familiar features of our solar system’s enormous planet in these images seen through Webb’s infrared gaze. 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.
…Clearly visible at left is Europa, a moon with a probable ocean below its thick icy crust, and the target of NASA’s forthcoming Europa Clipper mission. What’s more, Europa’s shadow can be seen to the left of the Great Red Spot. Other visible moons in these images include Thebe and Metis.
The false color differences indicated differences in heat but it is not explained whether brighter is colder or warmer in this photo.. As one of my readers below correctly notes, Europa’s shadow tells us that darker is cooler. This one image shows that the Red Spot and Jupiter’s equatorial regions and poles are generally warm.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
You would assume Europa’s shadow would be cooler than it’s surroundings. And it’s darker than the surroundings, indicating that darker is cooler.
David Eastman: Duh. Why didn’t I think of that!?
I just wish we had Webb back when SL-9 hit Jupiter.
A shadow merely indicates light from the sun not on Jupiter surface…
Is that relevant with this infrared telescope? Can this telescope see cold? (less heat or the lack of all heat?) Or only heat emissions?
In the infrared spectrum, Jupiter emits 2 times? more heat to Europa than the sun. (This is possibly the reason for the Aurora around Europa?)
While on the near side, though lit up by the sun, Europa is cold in the infrared?
Think of it this way, when we take a picture of Venus (or mercury) transit in front of the sun, is Venus casting a shadow upon the sun? Only if an energy, that the sun is not producing, is being broadcast towards the sun that Venus would block. I can’t think of any examples, but the point of Jupiter emitting like the sun in the infrared for this particular camera cannot be ignored.
On the other hand, I cannot think of what the spot might be. My guess is another moon in direct line with the camera that appears black because of its cold surface. (Although it can’t be close to Jupiter or it would be lit up like Europa)
Although at 5AU, the shadow that Europa has cast would only be slightly smaller then the object producing it… It appears the shadow is larger than the moon in this picture. It could be elongated by the curvature of the planet?
On magnification, I see many black objects that vary in size. Meteorites/minor moons in Jupiters orbit? Astroids between earth and Jupiter? If these are true objects and not pixel errors, space is crowded with debris. The very purpose for which an infrared scope is designed to discover…
Jupiter is rotating once every 10 hours, I expected a blurry picture… This is surprisingly sharp. The latest in stabilization techniques? Or is Jupiter so hot, it was only necessary to take a quick snapshot without needing to hold still for a long time to gather enough heat for a good resolution? If so, very impressive technology!
Regardless, we are seeing things that are not noticeable in the visible spectrum. Exciting! Especially the unusual brightness of the great red spot, which I still haven’t verified is the second South Pole that they discovered while mapping the magnetic field of Jupiter. Possibly The cause of the moon Io’s excessive heat causing volcanoes due to magnetic induction?
Speaking of Io, a focused picture would show the volcano hotspots… I look forward to more pictures!
Holy cow! My comments were premature. I clicked on the picture for highest resolution… Unbelievable what’s in the picture!
First of all, objects do get blurry on higher resolution showing there might be some distortion due to rotation.
But the black dots that look like pepper over the surface of Jupiter remain sharp. Including the bright spot near the shadow (cold spot) that is different from another bright spot that appears blurry at the edges consistent with a surface storm. No explanation or guess what that bright spot might be. Obviously it’s emitting heat.
Another bright spot above the equator appears to be a rectangular astroid entering the atmosphere leaving a bright trail behind? (rectangle two pixels wide?)
Some of the pepper looking pixels have two, three lobes to them indicating that they are indeed objects of irregular size and shape.
The most distinctive sharp astroid picture is the three astroids in the bottom left of the picture. (Standing out in the black in space) Obviously heated by the sun and very close to the telescope to show such detail (although small). The one in the middle you can see it has moons circling it! The one on the right is larger with much distinctive irregularities.
This proves this is just the kind of telescope that can detect undiscovered astroids and comets in our solar system!
The most unusual objects I found is the dark void with a few white objects of heat on its edge just to the left of Jupiters equator. This could be an artifact produced by the bright equator but it should be present on the other side as well? There I found two more moons just below Jupiter equator on the right side. Very dark, they stand out on high magnification. One much larger then Europa!
I’m going to take a screenshot of the objects before someone remove them from the picture…
My guess is this is not a cleaned up image or several images laid over each other.
The black spots are more than likely not something in space but aberrations of the camera caused by radiation passing through the CCD in the camera.
It happens in all digital cameras especially in space. You just do not see it because of programing to remove it.
My guess is astronomical cameras do not have this programing in order to make them more sensitive and the dots are removed for publication.
As for Europa more than likely this circle is a digital overlay sort of a mask to keep the rest of the picture from being under/over processed.
If I had a better computer I would download the raw photos and see.
Holy cow! I jumped the gun with my comments before clicking on the picture and looking at Jupiter in high-resolution.
Many of the objects of different sizes have unusual shapes. (The black objects peppered across Jupiters surface and in the corona just outside the planets surface)
Near the great red spot is a large object, and on the other side is a double lobe. In fact, I found several double and triple lobe. There are two black spots that have heat signatures, like Europa, with a Halo, just below the unusual white spot in the center.
One, above center, looks to be entering the atmosphere with the trail of heat behind it.
I see three fantastic astroids in the lower left outlined against the black of space. One has moons circling it. Obviously been heated by the sun, must be part of the astroid belt in the space between us and Jupiter. I found two more above Europa, and three more dim ones to the right top corner of Jupiter.
There’s another dark moon? just to the right and below the equator of Jupiter. And a massive object that appears to be a comet below that, many times the size of Europa! (I think it’s a comet because it gets colder in degrees until you reach the black center)
There’s a protrusion at the south pole that appears like a solar flare just to the right of center. And there is a black cloud/void to the left of the equator with pepper objects surrounding it, some of which are heated and show up brighter than the background blackness.
This camera is indeed is proving it’s worth showing the warm objects that we cannot see in the visible spectrum. Proven it’s worth for finding comets and astroids inside our solar system!
I went back and took screenshots in case these unusual objects are removed.
I find something new each time I look, what do you see?
Sorry, the second post delay made me believe that I made a mistake and did not send and lost it. So I rewrote it the best I can remember.
The bright spots near the void are slightly distorted indicating that they are probably rotating quickly? And so many dark spots near the void, there must be a connection.
I hope they took more pictures for comparison. I also found three dim astroids above Jupiter in the void of space, and my wife thinks the one above and to the left of Europa looks like a mouth with teeth. The one directly above Europa has three eyes…
Found three dim ones, bottom right, to the left of the comet, below Jupiter.
As pzatchok said;
“My guess is this is not a cleaned up image or several images laid over each other.
The black spots are more than likely not something in space but aberrations of the camera caused by radiation passing through the CCD in the camera”
I would have to agree with the limited information I have on how this heat reflective telescope works, just haven’t noticed it in the other pictures that have been posted so far.
But then Jupiter is known to be a source of much radiation that would cause such distorted pixels.
The rocks in the lower left half too much detail to be random, and the objects on the far right bottom are so large.
It will be interesting to hear their explanations!
What happens to a CCD camera in space is pretty much the same thing that happens when you are far down in a cave and turn off the lights.
After a few minutes you start to “see” flashes in front of your eyes, Its actually tachions and other radiation hitting your retina and setting off the nerves.
But then again it could be an invasion fleet of aliens coming our way from their base on Jupiter.
With pzatchok’s most recent comment, I can no longer say that I agree with him, but, yes, those are pixel-shaped black spots, not asteroid-shaped. In my space-science days, one of the problems that we had was determining when pixels/data were damaged, caused by electrical noise or by various kinds of radiation at the several stages of data collection, amplification, and treatment in our instrument. (By the time the data was sent from the instrument to the spacecraft’s transmitter, it should have been made fairly robust.).
Webb was designed to look at very faint objects, and Jupiter is fairly “bright” or hot. Looking at it would warm the instrument package more than looking into deep space, so I expect a low percentage of pictures of our nearest neighboring planets.
“The Jupiter images in the narrow-band filters were designed to provide nice images of the entire disk of the planet, but the wealth of additional information about very faint objects (Metis, Thebe, the main ring, hazes) in those images with approximately one-minute exposures was absolutely a very pleasant surprise.”
OK, Zimmermans article states there were other moons in the picture.
Because they did not look spectacular like Europa I believed they were outside the frame of the picture?
Nope, one of them is directly above Europa, the other just to the right of Jupiters equator. No explanation for the biggest one just below that. (The one I call the comet because it appears to be a ball of gas)
The rest of the rocks in the picture were explained as debris from an impact on one of the moons that created the ring around Jupiter. (Some of the debris are larger than the named moons)
With different filters, they show up quite clearly. Including a few that I missed on the original picture.
There are other pictures with different filters with one minute exposures. (the void is part of the ring system?)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2022/07/15/webb-telescopes-absolutely-astonishing-new-photo-album-of-jupiter-reveal-the-giant-planet-as-weve-never-seen-it-before/
Better pictures from the James Webb website.
https://webb.nasa.gov/content/multimedia/images.html
Jupiter is at the bottom of the page.
You were right why Europa is black…
“On the right the bands are not as visible but they shows more of the moons. The moons are spots of orange, except Europa, which is so bright it has a black spot at center, where its light has flooded the detectors.”
What is puzzling is the void is more distinct and sharp. The straight edges on the void are not natural indicating pixel error? It’s not part of the rings, no explanation given.
The object in the bottom right of the “brilliantly white Jupiter” picture (that I call a comet) is visible as an lumpy object at the edge of the frame.