NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured interesting pictures of Mars for the first time
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), known for capturing some incredible pictures of the universe, has unveiled some new pictures of neighboring Mars. JWST’s first images of Mars captured by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) show a portion of the planet’s eastern hemisphere in two different wavelengths. The telescope took these pictures of Mars on 5 September.
American Space Agency- NASA, European Space Agency-ESA and Canadian Space Agency- CSA. The James Webb Space Telescope was launched in December 2021 after an international collaboration between Last month, the telescope gave us a detailed view of the planet Jupiter, showing the auroras and rings around the planet.
Today in an official blog, NASA shared the news, showcasing the Webb telescope’s first pictures of the Red Planet. According to NASA’s tweet on the telescope’s official Twitter handle, the close-up images give details about a Huygens crater, dark volcano, Syrtis Major and Hellas Basin.
Webb got its first look at @NASAMars! 👀
— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) September 19, 2022
The close-up on the left reveals surface features such as Huygens Crater, dark volcanic Syrtis Major, and Hellas Basin, while the “heat map" on the right shows light being given off by Mars as it loses heat. More: https://t.co/7dVIr9g6NB pic.twitter.com/xOiPbz5nsT
JWST’s first images of Mars have been captured by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). These images show an area of Mars’ eastern hemisphere in two different wavelengths or colors of infrared light.
According to NASA, the Mars mission team will use this imaging and spectroscopic data to detect regional differences across the planet in the future. They will also see traces of various gases in the planet’s atmosphere through these pictures.
