Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Crescent Neptune and Triton

NASA ^ | April 14, 2013 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: Gliding silently through the outer Solar System, the Voyager 2 spacecraft camera captured Neptune and Triton together in crescent phase in 1989. The elegant picture of the gas giant planet and its cloudy moon was taken from behind just after closest approach. It could not have been taken from Earth because Neptune never shows a crescent phase to sunward Earth. The unusual vantage point also robs Neptune of its familiar blue hue, as sunlight seen from here is scattered forward, and so is reddened like the setting Sun. Neptune is smaller but more massive than Uranus, has several dark rings, and emits more light than it receives from the Sun.

[SunkenCiv]

[Credit: Voyager 2, NASA]

[SunkenCiv]

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[cripplecreek]

Its been a while since I was out that way.

[onyx]

Thanks so much, SunkenCiv.
I like!

[Delta 21]

Cool.

“....and emits more light than it receives from the Sun.”

I am curious now!

[wastedyears]

Smaller but more massive...

... What?

[Lurking Libertarian]

Smaller but more massive... ... What?

Uranus is very large in diameter, but is made up mostly of light gasses. Neptune is smaller in size, but made up of heavier stuff.

[Delta 21]

Its just packed tighter.

[wastedyears]

Massive is still a word used to describe size. The author should’ve said “smaller, but heavier and more dense.” That makes far more logical sense.

[Lurking Libertarian]

Massive is still a word used to describe size. The author should’ve said “smaller, but heavier and more dense.”

It's a scientific article. Scientists use the word "mass" instead of "weight," because weight varies with gravity and mass is constant.

[mylife]

That is pretty cool.
What a wild world we live in.

[mylife]

Uranus is very large in diameter, but is made up mostly of light gasses"

Excuse me????

[Jack Hydrazine]

Tonight the waxing, crescent Moon is very close to Jupiter.

Conjunction between the Moon and Jupiter
http://dcford.org.uk/news.php?id=20130414_16_100

The Moon and will make a close approach within 2°03’ of each other, the pair being visible in the west in the early evening sky. At the moment of closest approach, the Moon will be at mag -10.6, and Jupiter at mag -2.1, both in the constellation Taurus.

The pair will be too widely separated to fit within the field of view of a telescope, but will be visible to the naked eye or through a pair of binoculars. At a declination of +22°08’ , they will be seen to best advantage in the northern hemisphere; in fact, they will be unobservable from latitudes south of 47°S. At Tacoma, the pair will set 4 hours and 24 minutes after the Sun.

For those with digital setting circles, the precise positions of the Moon and Jupiter at the moment of closest approach will be as follows:

[Jack Hydrazine]

Completely unexpected news, eh?

[Jack Hydrazine]

It’s like finding out that there are people who live on Rekdal Road on Camano Island, WA. It’s not quite as gassy as Uranus.

[dr_lew]

This refers to light in the generalized sense of E-M radiation. Neptune is very cold and does not shine with its own radiation in the visible spectrum ... as you can see in the APOD!

[mylife]

Ahhh Hah...

[Windflier]

" Neptune is smaller but more massive than Uranus, has several dark rings, and emits more light than it receives from the Sun."

I don't care who you are. That's got to intrigue the hell out of anyone.

[Windflier]

What a wild world we live in.

Umm....I rather think this is out of this world :-)

[Vendome]

Next time you go send a post card back, with a picture, saying:

“Wish you were here!”