James Webb space telescope captures remarkable views of Jupiter

One of the images shows detailed views of the planet's rings, aurorae and two tiny moons

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  The James Webb telescope captured stunning images of Jupiter. Photo: NASA

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  Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. Photo: NASA

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  Experts were impressed by the quality of the images gathered by the state-of-the-art telescope. Photo: NASA

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  The view shows Jupiter including its Great red Spot captured by Nasa's Juno spacecraft on April 1, 2018. Photo: Nasa

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  The temporary "crater" and debris left behind by the impact of a fragment of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet in 1994. Some of the impacts created fireballs the size of Earth. Photo: Nasa

Nasa has released two stunning images of Jupiter captured by the James Webb Space Telescope.

One of the photos shows the planet’s faint rings, two tiny moons called Amalthea and Adrastea, and striking views of its aurorae, with galaxies in the background.

The other displays its Great Red Spot, a storm so big it could swallow Earth.

The latest observations will give scientists a greater understanding of the largest planet in the solar system.

“We hadn’t really expected it to be this good,” said planetary astronomer Imke de Pater, who is also a professor emerita of the University of California, Berkeley.

“It’s really remarkable that we can see details on Jupiter together with its rings, tiny satellites, and even galaxies in one image."

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  Uranus is surrounded by 13 rings and 27 small moons as it rotates at a nearly 90-degree angle from the plane of its orbit. Photo: Nasa

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  Complex organic molecules similar to smoke or smog in a galaxy more than 12 billion light-years from Earth. Photo: Nasa

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  A delicate image of dust structures and bright star clusters taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. Photo: Nasa

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  Saturn has seven rings with several gaps and divisions between them, as well as 53 known moons. Photo: Nasa

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  Star cluster NGC 346, spiral galaxies NGC 1672 and Messier 74, and the Pillars of Creation, towering tendrils of cosmic dust and gas at the heart of the Eagle Nebula. Photo: Nasa

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  An infrared image of Neptune, the only planet in our solar system not visible to the naked eye. Photo: Nasa

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  Every eight years, the two stars in this image are brought together by their orbits – creating colliding streams of gas that, under the right conditions, form a new ring of dust. Photo: Nasa

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  A part of the Orion Nebula known as the Orion Bar. Photo: Nasa

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  A crowded field of galaxies, along with stars crowned with the James Webb Space Telescope's signature six-pointed diffraction spikes. Photo: Nasa

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  The NGC 3256 spiral galaxy was formed after a collision of two massive galaxies about 500 million years ago. Photo: Nasa

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  The Wolf-Rayet 124 star, featured in an image combining near-infrared and mid-infrared wavelengths of light. Photo: Nasa

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  An hourglass-shaped cloud of dust and gas is illuminated by light from a protostar. Photo: Nasa

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  Two views of the Southern Ring Nebula, which show the planetary nebula as a misshapen oval. Photo: Nasa

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  A composite image of the Cartwheel Galaxy captured by the James Webb Space Telescope in August 2022. AFP

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  A cluster of stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud, near the Milky Way. Photo: JWST

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  A colour composite image of the Messier 74 galaxy. Photo: JWST

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  The gravity of galaxy cluster MACS0647 bends and magnifies light from the more distant MACS0647-JD. Photo: Nasa

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  The 'Pillars of Creation' — clouds of hydrogen gas and dust 6,500 light years from Earth — captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, left, and James Webb Space Telescope. AP

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  Dust rings resembling a fingerprint created by a rare type of star and its companion. PA

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  Images of the asteroid Dimorphos hours after Nasa crashed a spacecraft into it in September 2022. EPA

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  Neptune and seven of its 14 known moons. AFP

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  Thousands of young stars in a stellar nursery called the Tarantula Nebula. Photo: Nasa

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  A image of an exoplanet — a gas giant with no rocky surface. Photo: Nasa, ESA and CSA

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  Glass-z13, the oldest galaxy to be detected, was formed about 300 million years after the Big Bang. Photo: JWST

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  Jupiter and its moon Europa. Photo: Nasa

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  Jupiter and its moons Europa, Thebe and Metis. Photo: Nasa

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  Another image of Jupiter and some of its 79 moons. Photo: Nasa

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  An image of galaxy cluster Smacs 0723 taken by the James Webb telescope. Photo: Nasa

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  Stephan’s Quintet is an area in space that has five galaxies. Photo: JWST

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  The 'Cosmic Cliffs' of the Carina Nebula. Photo: JWST

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  An anniversary image shows the birth of a star in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, the closest star-forming region to Earth. Photo: Nasa

Dr de Pater led the observations of Jupiter with Thierry Fouchet, a professor at the Paris Observatory, as part of an international collaboration for Webb’s Early Release Science programme.

Scientists are interested in studying Jupiter because it could help them to learn more about the solar system.

The planet, which is believed to have 79 moons, has a unique composition and inner structure that researchers want to study more.

Its atmosphere is made up of mostly hydrogen gas and helium gas, just like the Sun.

The gas giant is covered in thick red, brown, yellow and white clouds, which make it look like the planet has stripes.

James Webb, the world’s most powerful space telescope, launched on Christmas Day and has since been sending back unique views of the universe.

These latest images of Jupiter were taken by the telescope’s near-infrared camera, which has three specialised filters that make details of the planet visible.

Infrared instruments help capture radiant energy that is invisible to the human eye but can be detected as heat.

The wide-field view of Jupiter, which shows its moons and aurora, also captures its rings that are a million times fainter than the planet.

“This one image sums up the science of our Jupiter system programme, which studies the dynamics and chemistry of Jupiter itself, its rings and its satellite system,” Dr Fouchet said.

The first image from the telescope was revealed by US President Joe Biden on July 11. It showed the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it was 4.6 billion years ago.

On July 20, it detected the oldest known galaxy in the universe, called Glass-z13, which was formed about 300 million years after the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago.

This breaks the record set by its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, which spotted GN-z11, a galaxy that was formed 400 million years after the birth of the universe.