Astronomy Picture of the Day

NASA ^ | 6/3/10 | NASA, USRA, DSI, Cornell. Anthony Wesley

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Jupiter from the Stratosphere
Credit: Infrared - NASA, USRA, DSI, Cornell Univ. / Visible - Anthony Wesley

Explanation: SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, captured its "first light" images on May 26, from an altitude of 35,000 feet. While flying above most of planet Earth's infrared-absorbing water vapor, SOFIA's premier infrared views of the cosmos included this remarkable false-color image (right panel) of Jupiter. For comparison, on the left is a recent, ground-based visible light image. Both show our solar system's ruling gas giant without its dark southern equatorial belt (normally seen in the upper hemisphere in this orientation). That familiar feature faded from view early in May. But the bright white stripe in SOFIA's image is a region of Jupiter's clouds transparent to infrared light, offering a glimpse below the cloud tops.

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Yesterday: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100602.html

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Very cool....or Hot, as the case may be!

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Something of possible interest to you;

Planet Triple Play: Saturn, Mars and Venus Appear Together

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20100603/sc_space/planettripleplaysaturnmarsandvenusappeartogether

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Thanks. I saw an article about it on Yahoo yesterday, but the sky was too cloudy around here last night. Fortunately, it will be like that for a while, but only Venus was visible. Some nights it’s so bright, it looks like a jet coming in to land.

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Hope the sky clears up and you get to see it before it’s over!