Amazing! NASA's James Webb Telescope captures clearest view of Neptune rings in 30 years

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Another amazing image captured by NASA's James Webb Telescope is out. It has captured the clearest image of Neptune's rings in more than 30 years and also reveals the ice giant in a whole new light. Informing about the same, NASA Webb Telescope tweeted, "Hey Neptune. Did you ring? Webb's latest image is the clearest look at Neptune's rings in 30+ years, and our first time seeing them in infrared light. Take in Webb's ghostly, ethereal views of the planet and its dust bands, rings and moons." In addition to several bright, narrow rings, the Webb image clearly shows Neptune's fainter dust bands.

It can be known that the planet Neptune was discovered in the year 1846 and since then it has been a fascination for researchers. The planet is located 30 times farther from the Sun than Earth, and orbits in the remote, dark region of the outer solar system. At that extreme distance, the Sun is so small and faint that high noon on Neptune is similar to a dim twilight on Earth, NASA informed.

Do you know that Neptune is characterized as an ice giant? Want to know why? It is so because of the chemical make-up of its interior. Compared to the gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn, Neptune is much richer in elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. This is readily apparent in Neptune's signature blue appearance in Hubble Space Telescope images at visible wavelengths, caused by small amounts of gaseous methane.

Webb's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) images objects in the near-infrared range from 0.6 to 5 microns, so Neptune does not appear blue to Webb. In fact, the methane gas so strongly absorbs red and infrared light that the planet is quite dark at these near-infrared wavelengths, except where high-altitude clouds are present. Such methane-ice