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Credit & Copyright: Jordi L. Coy
Explanation:
What's that below the Moon?
Jupiter -- and its largest moons.
Many
skygazers across planet Earth enjoyed the close conjunction of
Earth's Moon passing nearly in front of Jupiter in mid-June.
The featured image is a single exposure of the event taken from
Morö¨n de la Frontera,
Spain.
The sunlit lunar crescent on the left is overexposed, while the Moon's night side,
on the right, is only faintly illuminated by Earthshine.
Lined up diagonally below the Moon, left to right, are
Jupiter's bright Galilean satellites:
Callisto,
Ganymede,
Io
(hard to see as it is very near to Jupiter), and
Europa.
In fact, Callisto, Ganymede, and Io are larger than Earth's Moon, while
Europa is only slightly smaller.
NASA's robotic spacecraft
Juno
is currently orbiting Jupiter and made a
close pass near Io only a week ago.
If you
look
up in the
night sky tonight, you will again see two of the brightest
objects angularly close together -- because
tonight is another
Moon-Jupiter conjunction.
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A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day