The new observations have also provided a last glimpse of Saturn’s north pole, with its enormous warm vortex filled with hydrocarbon gases, before the pole begins to recede into the darkness of polar winter.
In the image, created by combining just a few of the wavelengths observed by MIRI, the bright thermal emission from the north pole stands out in blue. The warm 1500-km wide north polar cyclone , which was first observed by themission, can be seen at the north pole. This is surrounded by a broader region of warm gases called the north-polar stratospheric vortex , which formed in Saturnian spring and has persisted throughout its northern summer.
The MIRI Medium-Resolution Spectrometer results taken in November 2022 revealed that this stratospheric circulation has now reversed and cool stratospheric temperatures and low hydrocarbon abundances are seen in the north between 10Professor Leigh Fletcher, from the University of Leicester School of Physics and Astronomy, said: “The quality of the new data from JWST is simply breath-taking – in one short set of observations, we’ve been able to continue the legacy of the Cassini mission into a...