Webb telescope captures weird auroras on Neptune for the first time
And Hubble helped.
By Elisha Sauers on March 27, 2025
Even at Neptune's incredible distance from the sun, astronomers have long suspected it has auroras, though they had never seen them until now.
The James Webb Space Telescope, a collaboration of NASA and its Canadian and European space agency counterparts, has finally captured clear images of these magnificent Neptunian light shows.
"As a long-time Neptunophile, anticipation of these images was one of the key reasons I became a JWST Interdisciplinary Scientist," said Heidi Hammel, a Neptune expert, in a post on X. "Kudos to the team for realizing my dream!"
But Webb's observations didn't just provide new pretty pictures of the ice giant planet's greenish-blue splotches. It revealed how odd Neptune's auroras are compared to other planets', glowing over its midriff rather than its poles. The new research was published in Nature Astronomy.
With Hubble and the James Webb space telescopes' data combined, right, Neptune's auroras are revealed in greenish-blue splotches. Credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / Heidi Hammel / Henrik Melin / Leigh Fletcher / Stefanie Milam
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