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This view is extraordinary.The James Webb Space Telescope has captured the clearest image of Neptune’s rings in over 30 years, offering a fresh perspective of this distant ice giant.Neptune’s 164-year orbit means its northern pole, visible at the top of the image, is currently just out of view for astronomers. However, Webb’s images suggest an intriguing brightness in that region. The southern pole’s vortex, previously known, is clearly visible in the Webb data, but for the first time, Webb has uncovered a continuous band of high-latitude clouds surrounding it.Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) images objects in the near-infrared range from 0.6 to 5 microns, which is why Neptune doesn’t appear blue in this view. Methane gas on the planet strongly absorbs red and infrared light, making Neptune appear quite dark at these wavelengths, except where high-altitude clouds reflect sunlight before methane absorbs it.