The James Webb Space Telescope has allowed us to see the universe like never before. From hypnotic galaxies to exoplanets in other areas of our Milky Way. However, he recently gave us a picture of the body that we know much better, and for good reason. Introducing the planet Mars captured by James Webb.

To once again demonstrate his power, James Webb turned his eyes to our own solar system. Here he took pictures of our neighbor, Mars. Captured by infrared devices, reveal details such as the composition of the atmosphere and the surface of the planet.

This information was published by the European Space Agency (ESA). It was on their official website that they shared new pictures of James Webb, which used the power of his NIRCam and NIRSpec cameras to get information about the red planet.

What did James Webb see on Mars?

Image published by ESA

On September 5, James Webb used a near-infrared camera and a near-infrared spectrograph to map the planet’s surface. The first superficial glance appears consists of two images at two different infrared frequencies.

What exactly do we see in them? In the lower field you can see the western hemisphere of the planet with a fairly high solar fall. In the specified image the brighter the color, the warmer the area. To capture this performance, James Webb looked at a frequency of 4.3 microns.

In the second image, the telescope shows some details of the Martian surface. In particular, areas of its topography such as the area known as Sirte Major, the Huygens crater and the Hellas Plain. To take this photograph, James Webb took it at 2.1 microns, which is in the near infrared spectrum and, like the previous one, is invisible to the human eye.

The telescope revealed the composition of the atmosphere of Mars

In addition to information about the planet’s surface, James Webb also collected data on the Martian atmosphere. To do this, he used his near-infrared spectrograph, with which captured elements such as carbon dioxide, water and carbon monoxide in the rarefied atmosphere of the red planet.

“These first observations of Mars by Webb demonstrate how we can study different regions of its surface, including the composition of its atmosphere using the NIRSpec instrument“says Chris Evans, Webb Project Scientist at ESA. Gizmodo.

Building on what has been done with other missions, and without the limitations of the Earth’s atmosphere for ground-based spectroscopy, Webb will give us new insights into topics as important as the history of water on Mars.

Chris Evans

Why take information from a planet we already know?

James Webb
Mirrors by James Webb during his construction

Mars is one of the most studied planets in the solar system. Not only because of the possibility of life appearing at some point in its history, but also because of what it means for humanity’s interplanetary future. Consequently, the red planet has been observed in detail for decades.

So why did James Webb capture information we already know? We are not alien to such details as its temperature or the composition of the atmosphere.. In fact, we have known them accurately for some time. But, as always, there is a very important reason for this.

Gathering information that we already know, and drawing conclusions that do not seem strange to us, James Webb and his team can measure its accuracy by finding this data.. In this way, we can know how the telescope will behave when pointed at other celestial bodies located much further away, or even at exoplanets that are not visible in other types of telescopes.

However, James Webb can also obtain information that, until now, we have not been able to observe in detail in our solar system. An example of this is Jupiter’s auroras, a shocking vision that has recently been revealed in all its glory.

Source: Hiper Textual

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