New composite images from NASA’s powerful James Webb Space Telescope offer impressive detail of the planet Jupiter, blogs.nasa.gov reveals.

These composite images will reveal more clues about the interior of the gas giant for scientists. They include auroras and mists

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“To be honest, we really didn’t expect it to be this good,” said planetary astronomer Imke de Pater, professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. De Pater led Jupiter observations with Paris Observatory professor Thierry Fouchet as part of an international collaboration for Webb’s Early Release Science program. Webb itself is an international mission led by NASA with its partners ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). “It is truly remarkable that we can see the detail of Jupiter with its rings, small satellites and even galaxies in a single image,” said de Pater, in the article “Webb’s Jupiter Images Showcase Auroras, Hazes” published on the aforementioned site.

The two images presented by NASA are from the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam), which

It has three specialized infrared filters. Since infrared light is invisible to the human eye, the light has been mapped to the visible spectrum.

Generally, longer wavelengths appear more red and shorter wavelengths appear more blue. The researchers collaborated with scientist Judy Schmidt to translate Webb’s data into images.

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Schmidt, of Modesto, California, processed these new views of Jupiter. For the image that includes the small satellites, he collaborated with Ricardo Hueso, co-investigator of these observations, who studies planetary atmospheres at the University of the Basque Country in Spain.

“In the stand-alone view of Jupiter, created from a combination of multiple Webb images, the auroras extend well above Jupiter’s north and south poles. The aurora glows in a filter that matches redder colors, which also brings out reflected light from the lower clouds and upper haze. A different filter, assigned to yellows and greens, shows mists swirling around the north and south poles. A third filter, assigned to blues, shows light that is reflected from a deeper main cloud,” the aforementioned note said.

The Great Red Spot, a famous storm so big it could engulf the Earth, appears white in these views, like other clouds, because it reflects so much sunlight.

In a wide-field view, James Webb sees Jupiter with its faint rings, which are a million times fainter than the planet, and two tiny moons named Amalthea and Adrasthea. The blurry spots in the lower background are likely galaxies “photographing” this Jovian view.

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NASA Blog explains that data from telescopes like the Webb does not arrive on Earth in an orderly packet. Instead, they contain information about the brightness of light from Webb’s detectors. This information arrives at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), Webb’s science and mission operations center, as raw data. STScI processes the data into calibrated files for scientific analysis and forwards it to the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes for dissemination.

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