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With auroras and all, the world's newest and largest space telescope is showing Jupiter in a way that has never been seen before.
Monday, scientists showed pictures of the largest planet in our solar system.
The James Webb Space Telescope took the pictures in July. They show Jupiter's northern and southern lights and swirling polar haze in a way that has never been seen before. The Great Red Spot, a storm on Jupiter that is big enough to swallow Earth, stands out among many smaller storms.
One wide-field picture is especially dramatic because it shows the faint rings around the planet as well as two tiny moons against a glittering background of galaxies.
"We've never seen Jupiter like this. Planetary astronomer Imke de Pater from the University of California, Berkeley, said in a statement, "It's all pretty amazing." He helped run the gathering. "To be honest, we didn't really think it would be this good."
The US-French research team said that the infrared images were given blue, white, green, yellow, and orange tints to make the features stand out.
The $10 billion Hubble Space Telescope replacement built by NASA and the European Space Agency was launched at the end of last year. Since the summer, it has been looking at the universe in infrared light. Scientists hope that with Webb, they will be able to see how the universe started 13.7 billion years ago, when the first stars and galaxies were being made.
The observatory is 1 million miles away from the Earth.
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