NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has discovered a new, never-before-seen feature in Jupiter's atmosphere: a high-speed jet stream. Located above Jupiter's equator, above the main cloud clusters, the jet stream extends over an area of more than 3000 miles (4800 kilometres). The discovery of this jet provides insight into how the layers of Jupiter's famously turbulent atmosphere interact with each other, and how Webb has the unique ability to monitor these features.

Combining recent Hubble and James Webb observations allows scientists to measure how fast Jupiter's winds change with altitude. The different wavelengths of the two telescopes also revealed the 3D structure of storm clouds on Jupiter and how fast storms develop.

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Jupiter dominates the black background of space. This image is a composite and shows Jupiter in enhanced colour, including the planet's turbulent Great Red Spot, which appears white here. The planet is streaked with swirling horizontal stripes in neon turquoise, periwinkle, light pink and cream. The stripes interact and blend at the edges like cream in coffee. Along both poles the planet glows turquoise. Bright orange auroras shine just above the planet's surface at both poles.