The JWST has found "dark beads" and unexpected structures inside the atmosphere of Saturn – strange features never seen before in the Solar System. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

On November 24, 2024, the JWST turned to observe Saturn for 10 hours, seeing the gas giant in unprecedented detail in the near-infrared spectrum. An international team looking at the data from the telescope was particularly interested in infrared emissions by hydrogen-3, or tritium, which plays a key role in reactions within Saturn's atmosphere, and so could be used to inform us about its chemical and physical processes. As well as observing these H 3 + ions in Saturn's ionosphere, the telescope observed methane molecules in the stratosphe

See Full Page