El 25 de junio de 2023, el telescopio espacial James Webb de la NASA se convirtió en un famoso mundo anillado Saturno para sus primeras observaciones de infrarrojo cercano del planeta. Las imágenes iniciales de la NIRCAM de Webb (cámara de infrarrojo cercano) ya son investigadores fascinantes.
Saturno en sí parece extremadamente oscuro en esta longitud de onda infrarroja observada por el telescopio, ya que el gas metano absorbe casi toda la luz del sol que cae sobre la atmósfera. Sin embargo, los anillos helados se mantienen relativamente brillantes, lo que lleva a la apariencia inusual de Saturno en la imagen Webb.
Esta imagen se tomó como parte de la observación de tiempo garantizada de Webb programa 1247 . El programa incluyó varias exposiciones muy profundas de Saturno, que fueron diseñadas para probar la capacidad del telescopio para detectar lunas débiles alrededor del planeta y sus anillos brillantes. Cualquier lunas recién descubiertas podría obtener pistas importantes sobre el flujo de material en el sistema de Saturno actual, así como su historia pasada.
créditos
Imagen
NASA, ESA, CSA, Matthew Tiscareno (Instituto Seti), Matthew Hedman (Universidad de Idaho), Maryame El Moutamid (Universidad Cornell), Instituto Seti (Seti Institute), Leigh Fletcher (Universidad de Leicester), Heidi HoTi, Heidi HoMel. (Aura)
Procesamiento de imágenes
Joseph Depasquale (STSCI)
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Saturn |
| Object Description | Gas giant with rings |
| Distance | The semi-major axis of Saturn's orbit about the sun is 9.5 Astronomical Units (A.U.) or roughly 1.4 billion km. |
| Dimensions | The planet (without rings) has a diameter of roughly 75,000 miles (120,000 km) at the equator. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | This image was created with Webb data from proposal: (L. Fletcher) |
| Instrument | NIRCam |
| Exposure Dates | June 25, 2023 |
| Filters | F323N |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | The images are separate exposures acquired by the NIRCam instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope. The color results from assigning an orange hue to monochromatic (grayscale) images. |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
