It’s a natural constituent of what’s known as natural gas. Methane: A hydrocarbon with the chemical formula CH 4 (meaning there are four hydrogen atoms bound to one carbon atom). Insight: The ability to gain an accurate and deep understanding of a situation just by thinking about it, instead of working out a solution through experimentation. Infrared light tends to record the heat signature of an object or environment. Other invisible wavelengths include X-rays, radio waves and microwaves. The name incorporates a Latin term and means “below red.” Infrared light has wavelengths longer than those visible to humans. Infrared: A type of electromagnetic radiation invisible to the human eye. For instance, the miniaturization of computers is sometimes described as these devices evolving to smaller, more complex devices. Nonliving things may also be described as evolving if they change over time. In living organisms, such an evolution usually involves random changes to genes that will then be passed along to an individual’s offspring. evolving) To change gradually over generations, or a long period of time. Its movement is driven by winds.Ĭoncentric: A series of circles or rings that have a common center point.Įvolve: (adj. “There’s more to come.”Īrc: A curve, often mapping out what appears to be part of a circle.Ītmosphere: The envelope of gases surrounding Earth, another planet or a moon.Ĭloud: A plume of molecules or particles, such as water droplets, that move under the action of an outside force, such as wind, radiation or water currents. (in atmospheric science) A mass of airborne water droplets and ice crystals that travel as a plume, usually high in Earth’s atmosphere. It may also provide new insight into how Neptune’s clouds and storms evolve, she says. That should provide new data on what the rings are made of and their motions. Upcoming JWST observations will look at Neptune with other scientific instruments. “So we can really see fine details that we haven’t been able to see before.” “JWST was designed to look at the first stars and galaxies across the universe,” Milam says. The enormity of the telescope’s mirror helps make its images extra sharp. She’s also a project scientist on this telescope. She works at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. That makes them “extremely reflective in infrared light,” notes this planetary scientist. “The rings have lots of ice and dust in them,” says Stefanie Milam. Explainer: What is a planet?Īnd then there are its ever-elusive rings. ![]() A few bright patches mark where high-altitude ice clouds of methane reflect sunlight. That’s because methane gas in the planet’s atmosphere absorbs much of its infrared light. Neptune itself appears mostly dark in the new image. Luckily, it’s got good eyesight because it was gazing at the planet from a distance of 4.4 billion kilometers (2.7 billion miles). That’s when the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, turned its sharp, infrared gaze toward Neptune. JPL/NASAĪs Voyager 2 continued into interplanetary space, Neptune’s rings once again went into hiding - until this past July. It was taken shortly after the probe made its closest approach to the planet. Neptune’s rings appear as thin arcs of light in this 1989 image from the Voyager 2 spacecraft.
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