Neptune and rings shine in photos from new space telescope

By MARCIA DUNN
AP Aerospace Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA has released new glamour shots of Neptune, and the planet and its rings haven’t looked this good in decades. The Webb Space Telescope took the stunning photos in the infrared of our solar system’s outermost planet. The pictures show not only Neptune’s thin rings, but its faint dust bands, never before observed in the infrared. Launched less than a year ago, Webb is spending most of its time peering deep into the universe. Astronomers hope to see back to almost the beginning of time when the first stars an galaxies were forming.