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Jupiter (NIRCam Image)

Jupiter dominates the black background of space. The image is a composite, and shows Jupiter in enhanced color, featuring the planet’s famous Great Red Spot, which appears white with light pink around the edges. The planet is striated with swirling horizontal stripes of green, periwinkle, light pink, and cream. Horizontally across the equator is a wide cream-colored band, whose height extends about 1/7 of the planet. This is the planet’s equatorial zone. The stripes across the planet interact and mix at their edges. Along both of the northern and southern poles, the planet glows in green. Bright red auroras glow just above the planet’s surface at both poles.

This image of Jupiter from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) shows stunning details of the majestic planet in infrared light. In this image, brightness indicates high altitude. The numerous bright white "spots" and "streaks" are likely very high-altitude cloud tops of condensed convective storms. Auroras, appearing in red in this image, extend to higher altitudes above both the northern and southern poles of the planet. By contrast, dark ribbons north of the equatorial region have little cloud cover.

In Webb's images of Jupiter from July 2022, researchers recently discovered a narrow jet stream traveling 320 miles per hour (515 kilometers per hour) sitting over Jupiter’s equator above the main cloud decks.

About the Object

  • Distance
    DistanceThe 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.
    On July 27th, 2022 Jupiter was 4.44 AU from Earth (about 413 million miles).

About the Data

  • Data Description
    Data DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
    Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.

    This image was created with Webb data from proposal: 1373 (I. de Pater). Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

     

  • Instrument
    InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
    NIRCam
  • Exposure Dates
    Exposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
    27 July 2022
  • Filters
    FiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.
    F164N, F212N, F360M
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    Jupiter
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    Planet
  • Release Date
    October 19, 2023
  • Science Release
    NASA’s Webb Discovers New Feature in Jupiter’s Atmosphere
    Read the release
  • Credit
    Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Ricardo Hueso (UPV), Imke de Pater (UC Berkeley), Thierry Fouchet (Observatory of Paris), Leigh Fletcher (University of Leicester), Michael Wong (UC Berkeley), Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

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Jupiter dominates the black background of space. The image is a composite, and shows Jupiter in enhanced color, featuring the planet’s famous Great Red Spot, which appears white with light pink around the edges. The planet is striated with swirling horizontal stripes of green, periwinkle, light pink, and cream. Horizontally across the equator is a wide cream-colored band, whose height extends about 1/7 of the planet. This is the planet’s equatorial zone. The stripes across the planet interact and mix at their edges. Along both of the northern and southern poles, the planet glows in green. Bright red auroras glow just above the planet’s surface at both poles.
Color Info
Color InfoA brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented.

These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the James Webb Space Telescope using the NIRCam instrument. Three filters were used to sample narrow wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are:   Red: F360M, Green: F212N, Blue: F164N

Compass and Scale
Compass and ScaleAn astronomical image with a scale that shows how large an object is on the sky, a compass that shows how the object is oriented on the sky, and the filters with which the image was made.

Related Images & Videos

The infographic shows Webb’s image of Jupiter at the left. The planet is striated with swirling horizontal stripes of neon turquoise, periwinkle, and cream. Below the planet, the NIRCam filters and their respective colors assigned are listed – F164N in blue, F212N in green, and F360M in red. On the right side of the infographic, there are 8 separate images. Two of those images are horizontal and span the entire right half of the infographic. The top horizontal image is labeled F212N 10:52 UT and the bottom is labeled F212N 20:55 UT. They are zoomed-in pullouts from a section of Jupiter’s equator—outlined in a white box on the image of the planet on the left. Both of these images are white and grey with horizontal wispy clouds. There are 6 smaller boxes in between the two horizontal images—3 rows of 2. The first column of the boxes is outlined in orange, the second column purple and the third yellow. Each of the smaller images correspond to orange, purple, and yellow boxes placed along the horizontal images.

Jupiter Jet Pullouts (NIRCam Image)

Researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) have discovered a high-speed jet stream sitting over Jupiter’s equator, above the main cloud decks. At a wavelength of 2.12 microns, which observes between altitudes of about 12-21 miles (20-35...

A portion of the graphic that displays wind speeds on Jupiter at different altitudes. The portion of this graphic shows the ends of three arrows that travel across the graphic from the left to the right. The top most arrow (colored in sky blue) extends the farthest right to about 3/4 the way across the graphic, the middle arrow (colored in periwinkle) extends to a little less than halfway across the graphic, and the bottom arrow (colored in light grey) extends to about 1/4 the way across the graphic. Extending out below each arrow is a cone of the same color to indicate the +/- error margin. There is Webb's image of Jupiter in the background of the graphic.

Jupiter's Atmosphere (Illustration)

Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a high-speed jet stream traveling over Jupiter’s equator above the main cloud decks. The jet is traveling 320 miles per hour (515 kilometers per hour). It is located around 25 miles (40 kilometers) in altitude,...

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Details

Last Updated
Aug 28, 2025
Contact
Media

Laura Betz
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov

Image Credit

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Ricardo Hueso (UPV), Imke de Pater (UC Berkeley), Thierry Fouchet (Observatory of Paris), Leigh Fletcher (University of Leicester), Michael Wong (UC Berkeley), Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

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