2026-02-13
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team;
image processing by citizen scientist Judy Schmidt.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will run a series of observations of Jupiter in Feb.-March 2026. Together, these observations will perform an in-depth investigation of atmosphere dynamics, temperatures, cloud properties and chemistry. Contextual images providing spatial and temporal context are being requested by the scientists associated to these observations. Ground-based data acquired by amateur astronomers before, during and short after these JWST observations will place these unique JWST data sets in the ever evolving canvas of Jupiter's evolving clouds and meteorological systems. Observations in all wavelengths are highly welcome and ideally covering colour filters, high-resolution views in red to near-IR filters and observations in the methane absorption band at 890 nm.
Below are details of the different programs and the current schedule of JWST observations.
Updated information about the JWST schedules are available for each individual programme in the links above. You can also check: Space Telescope Live to understand what the telescope is looking at right now.
Further information is available in the Planetary Wanderings blog by Leigh Fletcher: https://leighfletcher.substack.com/p/supporting-the-jwst-jupiter-campaign