James Webb Space Telescope sends back pictures of Mars

NASA released the first images of Mars taken by the James Webb Space Telescope on Monday. Photos by NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Mars JWST/GTO team.

“Webb can capture images and spectra at the spectral resolution required to study short-term phenomena such as dust storms, weather patterns, and seasonal changes, allowing a single observation to be performed at different times (day, sunset, We can look at processes that occur during the night, Mars Day,” the agency said in a blog post.

In fact, the telescope was so sensitive that astronomers had to calibrate it so that the blinding light did not saturate the telescope’s detectors.

Some images show the Ring of Huygens Crater, the dark volcanic rocks of Syrtis Major, and the brightness of the Hellas Basin.

“The low altitude of the Hellas Basin results in high pressure, which suppresses thermal radiation in this particular wavelength range. [4.1-4.4 microns] “It will be very interesting to distinguish between these competing effects in these data,” said Jeronimo Villanueva, principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Researchers prepare papers to submit to scientific journals for peer review and publication.