Neptune’s auroras are captured in great detail by NASA’s Webb telescope

By: Christina Larson, The Associated Press Posted: 12:31 PM CDT Wednesday, Mar. 26, 2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — Neptune's glowing auroras are captured in the best detail yet by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.

Read this article for free:

or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Neptune's glowing auroras are captured in the best detail yet by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.

Read unlimited articles for free today:

or

Already have an account? Log in here »

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/03/2025 (553 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Neptune’s glowing auroras are captured in the best detail yet by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

Hints of auroras were first faintly detected in ultraviolet light during a flyby of the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1989. Webb captured Neptune’s shimmering lights in infrared light, providing direct evidence they exist.

NASA released the images on Wednesday, and the results were published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

In this combination image released by ESA/Webb, left, an enhanced-color image of Neptune from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and right, that image is combined with data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. (ESA/Webb via AP)

Auroras on any planet occur when electrically charged particles from space enter and collide with molecules in the atmosphere, creating a series of reactions that emits light.

On Earth, auroras tend to occur near the polar regions, producing spectacular northern and southern lights.

Scientists have studied auroras on Saturn and Jupiter for decades, but Neptune, the farthest planet from the sun, has been harder to see up close.

“Neptune has always been elusive,” said University of Reading planetary scientist James O’Donoghue, co-author of the new study. Its auroras “had only been seen by Voyager, and we’ve been trying to see it again ever since.”

Neptune’s auroras occur near the mid-latitudes of the planet, not the polar regions, because of differences in its magnetic field, which determine the span of auroras, said O’Donoghue.

More than three decades after Voyager 2’s pass, scientists have seen Neptune’s auroras again with the powerful Webb telescope, producing “the first robust detection,” co-author Heidi Hammel of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, said in an email.

The researchers also revealed that Neptune’s atmosphere has cooled significantly since the 1980s, which may have somewhat dimmed the light of the auroras.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.