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Exploring Our Solar System with Webb

Viewing our cosmic neighbors in a new light

Whether exploring the small bodies or giant planets of our solar system, the James Webb Space Telescope is revolutionizing our understanding of our closest cosmic neighbors. With its powerful infrared instruments, sharp spatial resolution, and exquisite sensitivity, Webb is forever changing our view of our celestial backyard. It is helping scientists answer important questions about our solar system, including:

  • How was the solar system formed and how has it changed over time?
  • Where did the chemicals necessary for life on Earth, like water and carbon compounds, come from?
  • What are the icy small bodies in the outer solar system made of?
  • How are planets around other stars like planets in our solar system?
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.
Jupiter (NIRCam Image). Get Jupiter's image details and downloads.
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, R. Hueso (UPV), I. de Pater (UC Berkeley), T. Fouchet (Observatory of Paris), L. Fletcher (University of Leicester), M.H. Wong (UC Berkeley), J. DePasquale (STScI)

Webb’s extraordinarily sensitive spectroscopic instruments and state-of-the-art imaging capabilities enable analysis and mapping of solar system objects’ atmospheres and surfaces. This is critical for studying planets, dwarf planets, moons, comets, asteroids, and ring systems. However, because Webb cannot point toward the Sun, it cannot observe objects between it and the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, or Earth’s moon.

Scientists are now using Webb to conduct detailed investigations of terrestrial Mars, gas giants Jupiter and Saturn, and ice giants Uranus and Neptune. Webb is also setting its sights on primordial bodies, such as comets and Kuiper Belt objects like Pluto. Perhaps most exciting is that, by studying the active moons Europa, Enceladus, and Titan, we can learn more about the chemistry of the outer solar system.

Below are examples of some of the recent, pioneering solar system science from the Webb telescope. All of the pictures in this article come from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument.

  • New jet stream feature seen in Jupiter’s atmosphere: Webb revealed a narrow jet stream speeding over Jupiter’s equator at 320 miles per hour. This high-speed jet stream is giving researchers incredible insight into how the layers of the planet’s atmosphere interact with each other.
  • The dramatic rings and dynamic atmosphere of Uranus: Webb showed us an intriguing, infrared view of Uranus’ rings, moons, storms, and the oddly tipped planet’s bright, north polar cap. Studying this ice giant can help astronomers understand the formation and weather of similarly sized planets around other suns.
  • Carbon on Europa’s surface suggests a favorable environment for life in the moon’s subsurface ocean: Jupiter’s moon Europa is a fascinating world with a salty subsurface ocean of liquid water. Using Webb, astronomers found carbon on Europa’s surface that likely originated in this ocean. This biologically essential chemical is the universal building block for life as we know it.
  • Detailed view of DART impact: Webb had a front-row seat to a first-of-its-kind NASA test for defending Earth against potential asteroid or comet hazards. The DART mission intentionally smashed a spacecraft into Dimorphos, the moonlet in the double-asteroid system of Didymos. Teaming with Hubble and ground-based telescopes, Webb helped confirm the success of the test to alter Didymos’ orbit. This observation demonstrated Webb’s ability to track small, fast-moving objects in the solar system.

Planets

Planets can be challenging to image with Webb because they are:

  • Very bright (they can saturate the telescope’s sensitive detectors, even with the shortest possible exposures)
  • Extended objects (as opposed to a point source of light, such as a star)
  • Rotating rapidly
  • Moving quickly in the sky

Despite these challenges, exciting early results prove that it is possible to study planets with Webb. The telescope captured images and spectra of Mars, which allow scientists to study short-term phenomena, like dust storms, weather patterns, seasonal changes, and, in a single observation, processes that occur at different times during a Martian day.

In addition to finding the speedy Jovian jet stream described above, Webb’s view of Jupiter includes many fascinating details, including auroras, hazes, and tiny moons.

The background is mostly dark. At the center is a dark orange-brownish circle, surrounded by several blazing bright, thick, horizontal whiteish rings. This is Saturn and its rings. There are three tiny organ-like dots in the image—one to the upper left of the planet, one to the direct left of the planet, and the lower left of the planet. They are labeled Dione, Enceladus, and Tethys. There is a slightly darker tint at the northern and southern poles of the planet. The rings surrounding Saturn are mostly broad, with a few singular narrow gaps between the broader rings. At the right side of the planet, labels are applied to the rings. The innermost, thicker ring is labeled “C ring.” Next to that, a brighter, wider ring is labeled “B ring.” Traveling farther outward, a small dark gap is labeled “Cassini division” before another thicker ring labeled “A ring.” Within the “A ring,” a narrow faint band is labeled “Encke gap.” The outermost, faintest, thinnest ring is labeled “F ring.”
Saturn (NIRCam Image). Webb shows bright icy rings and three of Saturn’s many moons. Get Saturn's image details and downloads.
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, M. Tiscareno (SETI Institute), M. Hedman (University of Idaho), M. El Moutamid (Cornell University), M. Showalter (SETI Institute), L. Fletcher (University of Leicester), H. Hammel (AURA); Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)
The planet Uranus on a black background. The planet appears blue with a large, white patch taking up the right half. The patch is whitest at the center, then fades into blue at it expands from right to left. A thin outline of Uranus is also white. Around the planet is a system of nested rings. The outermost ring is the brightest while the innermost ring is the faintest. Unlike Saturn’s horizontal rings, the rings of Uranus are vertical and so they appear to surround the planet in an oval shape. There are 9 blueish white dots scattered around the rings.
Uranus Close-up (NIRCam Image). Webb’s captures Uranus and its rings with striking new clarity. It also shows 9 of the planet’s 27 moons. Get Uranus' image details and downloads.
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
Image has a mostly dark background and at the center of the image is a glowing sphere, mostly white, almost neon, with a few extremely bright patches of methane-ice clouds splattered throughout the sphere’s bottom half. The glowing sphere is accompanied by several narrow, faint rings— 2 thinner, crisper rings and 2 broader, fainter rings. There are 6 tiny white dots, some floating among the black background near the sphere, others placed among the rings. These are 6 of Neptune’s 14 moons. In the top right corner of the image is a very dim splotch.
Neptune Close Up (NIRCam Image). Webb highlights the planet’s dim rings, methane-ice clouds, and several of its moons. Get Neptune's image details and downloads.
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI), N. Rowe-Gurney (NASA-GSFC)

Moons

In addition to finding carbon on the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa that likely originated in its subsurface ocean. The telescope also detected a shockingly large water-vapor plume spewing from Saturn’s moon Enceladus. For the first time, Webb is giving scientists a direct look at how the water gushing from the surface of Enceladus — first detected by the Cassini spacecraft — feeds the entire system of Saturn, including its rings.

Researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space telescope recently discovered a plume jetting out from the moon’s south pole more than 20 times the size of the moon itself. This animation illustrates how the moon’s water plumes feed the planet’s torus. By analyzing the Webb data, astronomers have determined roughly 30 percent of the water stays within this torus, and the other 70 percent escapes to supply the rest of the Saturnian system with water.
Video: L. Hustak (STScI); Science: NASA, ESA, CSA, G. Villanueva; Image Processing: A. Pagan (STScI)

Get video details and downloads in the Video gallery, or download video captions (no audio, VTT), and transcript of the audio description (Word Doc, 19 KB).

Using Webb’s infrared vision to study the atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan — the only moon in the Solar System with a dense atmosphere — scientists detected clouds and observed airflow. Titan is the only planetary body other than Earth that currently has rivers, lakes, and seas. Unlike Earth, however, the liquid on Titan’s surface is composed of hydrocarbons, including methane and ethane, not water.

Small Bodies

Webb’s huge mirror and infrared sensitivity make it easier to see small, faint bodies such as Kuiper Belt objects, comets, asteroids, and centaurs. In the first demonstration of this capability, described in detail above, Webb captured the DART impact — NASA’s inaugural attempt to move an asteroid in space.

Webb enabled another long-sought scientific breakthrough, this time for solar system scientists studying the origins of Earth’s abundant water. Using Webb’s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) instrument, astronomers for the first time have confirmed gas — specifically water vapor — around a comet in the main asteroid belt. This indicates that water ice from the primordial solar system can be preserved in that region. However, the successful detection of water comes with a new puzzle: Unlike other comets, Comet 238P/Read had no detectable carbon dioxide.

On a black background, a bright red spot appears at the center of the image. The spot, which is the asteroid Didymos-Dimorphos system after impact from DART, has 8 diffraction spikes extending out from its center. Also surrounding the asteroid is a haze of bright light with wispy tendrils extending outwards.
Webb's NIRCam image of the asteroid Dimorphos about 4 hours after NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) made impact. Get the asteroid image details and downloads.
NASA, ESA, CSA, C. Thomas (Northern Arizona University), I. Wong (NASA-GSFC); Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)
Illustration of a solid, brownish orange, ovoid-shaped body surrounded by two white rings, with a star in the background.
This 10199 Chariklo illustration shows how the centaur and its rings may look, based on our current understanding. Get the illustration details and downloads.
Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, L. Hustak (STScI)

Scientists also used Webb to capture the shadows of starlight cast by the thin rings of Chariklo, a small, icy body more than 2 billion miles beyond the orbit of Saturn. Only 160 miles (250 kilometers) or ~51 times smaller than Earth in diameter, Chariklo is the largest of the known centaur population. Its rings orbit at a distance of about 250 miles (400 kilometers) from its center. Information gathered from these rings will allow astronomers to explore the rings’ thickness, the sizes and colors of the ring particles, and more. Scientists hope to gain insight into why this small body even has rings at all, and perhaps detect new, fainter rings.

Ices

Many different kinds of ice exist in the outer solar system — not just the familiar water ice. Other molecules besides water can form ices, such as nitrogen, methane, ammonia, and carbon dioxide.

Webb excels in the study of ices in the solar system through the use of spectroscopy. Most often, it provides reflectance spectra — sunlight shining on an object and reflecting back, while the surface absorbs particular wavelengths of light.

For ices in the outer solar system, it’s not just the composition that matters; it’s also the shape and structure. Different structures of ice — such as amorphous, crystalline, and irradiated — look different in spectra. The type can tell scientists about the temperature history of the object. In crystalline ice, the molecules are arranged in a highly regular pattern forming lattices, such as in typical water ice on Earth. With amorphous ice, the molecules are irregularly grouped. In the cold, primordial gas between stars and across the universe, amorphous ice is the most common form.

Four square panels appear in a horizontal strip. The first features a blue-and-white sphere against a black background, reminiscent of the “Blue Marble” picture of Earth. With fuzzy edges, this sphere has darker blue patches in the northern hemisphere and two large white patches in the southern hemisphere. Below it is the label: “Europa (NIRCam).” Each of the second, third, and fourth panels has a pixelated, roughly circular image of small, white, blue, or orange squares. The orange or blue squares appear in various shades. Several squares are a mix of both orange and blue. In each of these panels, there are slight variations in the arrangement of the colored squares. In the second panel, the label below the image reads: “Crystalline C O 2 ice at 2.7 microns.” In the third panel, the label below the image reads: “Crystalline C O 2 ice at 4.27 microns.” In the fourth panel, the label below the image reads: “Complex C O 2 ice at 4.25 microns.” See the extended description for more details.
Europa Carbon Dioxide Distribution: This graphic shows a map of Europa’s surface with NIRCam in the first panel and compositional maps derived from NIRSpec/IFU data in the following three panels. Get the IFU image details and downloads.
NASA, ESA, CSA, G. Villanueva (NASA-GSFC), S.K. Trumbo (Cornell University); Image Processing: G. Villanueva (NASA-GSFC), A. Pagan (STScI)

This is why Webb’s integral field units (IFUs) are especially important. With a spectrum in every pixel, scientists can map out the surface of an object. One good example is Jupiter’s moon Europa. By looking at a map of the carbon dioxide on Europa, we can tell that the carbon originated in the oceans because it is most abundant in a region where the terrain is quite new.

Another example of the exquisite quality of Webb spectroscopy is the clear signature of crystalline ice revealed for the first time on Chariklo. Ground-based telescopes had hinted at this ice, but Webb saw the crystalline-ice signature for the first time.

Chemical Building Blocks for Life

Some of Webb’s most intriguing discoveries involve searching for the building blocks of life beyond Earth. This search hinges on the accurate identification of chemical markers, such as water, carbon dioxide, and ammonia. These markers have strong infrared signatures that Webb can detect in the atmospheres and on the surfaces of planets, moons, and smaller bodies.

Studying substances like water, carbon dioxide, ammonia, and organic molecules in the solar system is challenging to do from the ground because all of those molecules are also present in Earth’s atmosphere. It is much easier to accomplish this from space, where any observations of these substances would not be confused with contamination from Earth-based sources.

Keep Up to Date with Webb Science

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