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Launched in December 2021 and successfully operating, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope recently captured its first images of our neighboring planet Mars. The telescope, an international collaboration with ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency), provides a unique perspective thanks to its infrared sensitivity on Mars and complements data collected by orbiters, rovers and other telescopes, NASA said on its blog. .
NASA’s official Webb Telescope Twitter user shared the images along with a tweet that read: “Webb takes first look at @NASAMars! Detail on left reveals surface features like Huygens Crater, dark volcanic Syrtis Major and other Hellas Basin, while ‘heat map’ on right it shows the light emitted by Mars as it loses heat.”
Webb got its first look at @NASAMars!
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
— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) September 19, 2022
NASA’s Mars Twitter staff shared the tweet, writing: “Rovers, orbiters, telescopes – and now a new, powerful eye watching the Red Planet. Welcome to Team Mars, @NASAWebb! We can’t wait to see what your observations add to our knowledge of dust storms, weather and seasonal changes!”
NASA’s blog reports that Webb’s new images show the planet’s eastern hemisphere region at two different wavelengths, or colors, of infrared light. They were captured by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam).
This image shows a surface reference map from NASA and the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) on the left, with two Webb NIRCam fields of view superimposed. Near-infrared images from Webb are shown at right.
The principal investigator, Geronimo Villanueva of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, who proposed these Webb observations, and his team also published Webb’s first near-infrared spectrum of Mars, demonstrating Webb’s ability to study the Red Planet using spectroscopy. NASA blog.
While the images show differences in brightness integrated over a large number of wavelengths from place to place across the planet at a particular day and time, the spectrum shows subtle variations in brightness among the hundreds of different wavelengths representing the planet as a whole.
Astronomers will analyze the properties of the spectrum to gain more information about the planet’s surface and atmosphere. In the future, the Mars team will use this imaging and spectroscopic data to examine regional differences across the planet and look for trace gases in the atmosphere, including methane and hydrogen chloride, according to a NASA blog.
