While celebrating the first anniversary of its inaugural image on Wednesday, July 12, the James-Webb Space Telescope turned to Saturn for the first time in its short existence. In the image transmitted on June 25, the ringed planet appears particularly dark, which is due to the fact that the telescope observes in the infrared: at this wavelength, the sunlight that Saturn receives is partly absorbed by the methane present in small quantities in the atmosphere. On the other hand, the rings, composed mainly of water ice, are much brighter, even if some of them, too thin, cannot be seen on the picture.
To Saturn’s left are three small dots, which represent three of the planet’s many satellites: from top to bottom, Dione, Enceladus, and Tethys. In a previous observation, centered on Enceladus, astronomers discovered a large plume of water vapor erupting from the South Pole of the Moon.
