ASTRONOMY: SCIENCE:
Basque participation in research showing new images
of Jupiter taken with the James Webb telescope:
The James Webb Space Telescope has provided two
surprisingly accurate new images of Jupiter, showing its giant
storms and extreme winds and offering scientists additional
clues about the planet's inner life.
Judy Schmidt has processed the images showing the planet's
small satellites, in collaboration with Ricardo Hueso, whose
research at the University of the Basque Country focuses on
the study of planetary atmospheres.
The U.S. space agency (NASA) has celebrated Çthe quality of
the details, which according to Imke de Pater, professor
emeritus at the University of California and co-director of the
observations, were not expected to be "so good".
The photographs released show that the auroras extend to
high altitudes over the north and south poles of Jupiter. These
images come from the near-infrared camera, which has three
infrared filters.
Because infrared light is invisible to the human eye, that light
has been mapped to the visible spectrum.
These snapshots clearly show the "Great Red Spot", a
sandstorm, which according to NASA is so large "that it could
swallow the Earth", and which on this occasion appears white
because it reflects a lot of sunlight.
Heidi Hammel, Webb scientist, has pointed out that the
brightness is a sign of high altitude, so that this large spot "has
high altitude haze". Also visible in the images are Jupiter's rings,
"a million times fainter than the planet," and two tiny moons
named Amalthea and Adrastea.
The researchers have already begun to analyze the data
received, which do not arrive on Earth packaged in an orderly
fashion, but have to be translated into images.
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