11/3/2023 0 Comments Neptune webb telescopeThe Cassini spacecraft captured views of Saturn with higher resolution than Webb, but with Cassini’s mission over, Webb is the primary tool scientists will use to continue studying Enceladus and Saturn for at least the next decade. ![]() Cassini spotted similar water plumes erupting through fissures in Enceladus’s ice sheet and flew through the jets to sample the particles coming from the moon’s deep ocean. NASA’s Cassini orbiter flew by Enceladus numerous times before its mission ended in 2017. Each is about the size of a large US state. Three of Saturn’s moons appear to the left of the planet in Webb’s view: Dione, Enceladus, and Tethys are visible as points of light. “Any newly discovered moons could help scientists put together a more complete picture of the current system of Saturn, as well as its past,” NASA said in a blog post released with the new Saturn image. There are 146 known moons in orbit around Saturn, ranging in size from larger than the planet Mercury to the size of a sports arena, more than any other planet in the solar system, according to NASA. The observations included several deep exposures of Saturn that astronomers are still analyzing to probe the planet’s fainter rings and search for undiscovered moons. Webb pointed its 21.3-foot (6.5-meter) gold-coated mirror toward Saturn as part of an observing program to test the telescope’s ability to detect faint moons. ![]() The picture shows Saturn’s iconic icy rings shining around the disk of the gas giant, which appears much darker in near-infrared due to the absorption of sunlight by methane particles suspended high in the planet’s atmosphere. Scientists added orange color to the monochrome picture to produce the image released Friday. Webb’s near-infrared camera took the picture of Saturn on June 25. ![]() The James Webb Space Telescope has observed Saturn for the first time, completing a family portrait of the Solar System’s ringed planets nearly a year after the mission’s first jaw-dropping image release. NASA/ESA/CSA/STSci reader comments 104 with
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