Scientists suspected the ice giant hosted auroras—and had already observed them on Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. But an observation of Neptune's lights remained elusive for decades

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have captured direct images of Neptune's elusive auroras for the first time.

Webb has filled in many gaps left by Voyager 2, the only spacecraft to visit the planet. In 2022, the telescope captured Neptune's ghostly rings and revealed a band of clouds around a known vortex at the planet's south pole for the first time.