Saturn's rings are glowing in Webb Space Telescope's latest cosmic shot

Saturn appears extremely dark in this image, as methane gas absorbs the sunlight falling on the atmosphere. The icy rings remain bright, leading to the unusual appearance of Saturn in the Webb image.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: Saturn has a fresh new look thanks to NASA's Webb Space Telescope. The gas giant is dark in the latest photo by Webb, released Friday, but its icy rings are glowing. Webb snapped the picture in the infrared last weekend. At this wavelength, the planet appears dark because sunlight is absorbed by methane in the atmosphere. But the icy rings remain bright.

This image was taken as part of Webb Guaranteed Time Observation program 1247. The program included several very deep exposures of Saturn, which were designed to test the telescope’s capacity to detect faint moons around the planet and its bright rings. Any newly discovered moons could help scientists put together a more complete picture of the current system of Saturn, as well as its past, NASA said in a blog post.

Three of Saturn's many moons also got caught on camera. Scientists are thrilled with this latest shot, which captures Saturn's atmosphere in detail. They hope to uncover new ring structures as well as any new, faint moons that might be lurking there.

"We look forward to digging into the deep exposures to see what discoveries may await," Matthew Tiscareno, a senior research scientist at the SETI Institute, said in a statement. According to NASA, the James Webb Space Telescope is the world's premier space science observatory. NASA which leads the observatory said the telescope will help solve mysteries in the solar system and look beyond to distant worlds around other stars.

Webb is also being used to probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it, NASA said. Webb is an international program with participation from ESA (European Space Agency), and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). (with AP inputs)