#webb images

Double the telescopes, double the wow. New views of Saturn from the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes are offering the most complete view of the beloved gas giant to date.

Hubble and Webb’s vision probe different atmospheric layers, bringing out storms, waves, and glowing ring structures in striking detail, while Hubble highlights subtle cloud banding and color variations on the planet. Both images capture several of Saturn’s larger moons. (Yes, those are the larger of Saturn’s 254 moons!)

Light from forming stars shines through in this near-infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope of the Pillars of Creation. Several newly formed stars within the pillars appear red. Stars are created as knots of gas and dust within the pillars collapse, heat up, and eventually begin shining brightly.

This region appears shrouded in dust to the human eye. But the near-infrared light emitted from the stars within the dusty pillars can be detected by Webb’s instruments.

The differences between what can be seen in near-infrared versus mid-infrared light are dramatically displayed in these images of Sagittarius B2 from the James Webb Space Telescope.

The massive star-forming region in the center of our Milky Way is home to thousands of colorful stars, which emit the near-infrared light captured by Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera). However, few stars emit the mid-infrared light captured by Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument).

Friendship photo time! Meet Neptune and one of its many moons, Triton.

In 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope captured this near-infrared view of the Neptune system. With its stunning resolution, the telescope imaged the planet’s rings, windy atmosphere, and methane-ice clouds.

Did you know a vibrant firecracker show is taking place near the edges of our Milky Way galaxy?

Astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope to image four areas of our Extreme Outer Galaxy, a region located more than 58,000 light-years from our Galactic Center. (For comparison, Earth is approximately 26,000 light-years from the center.)

By examining the outskirts of our galaxy, scientists can study star formation in a setting that has a similar composition to dwarf galaxies, along with our own Milky Way in its early history.

Often the search for answers leads to new questions. Still, astronomers did not expect to find the familiar shape of a question mark in the latest image from the James Webb Space Telescope.

Astronomy is weird, man

Scientists say the question-mark-shaped structure seen in a new photo from the James Webb Space Telescope is likely the merger of two or more galaxies

A new photo from the James Webb Space Telescope shows a tightly bound pair of actively forming stars (at the center of the red spikes). But many people are more curious about the question mark-shaped structure highlighted at the bottom middle of the frame