Posted on 02/06/2015 4:18:54 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Explanation: Our solar system's ruling giant planet Jupiter and 3 of its 4 large Galilean moons are captured in this single Hubble snapshot from January 24. Crossing in front of Jupiter's banded cloud tops Europa, Callisto, and Io are framed from lower left to upper right in a rare triple-moon conjunction. Distinguishable by colors alone icy Europa is almost white, Callisto's ancient cratered surface looks dark brown, and volcanic Io appears yellowish. The transiting moons and moon shadows can be identified by sliding your cursor over the image, or following this link. Remarkably, two small, inner Jovian moons, Amalthea and Thebe, along with their shadows, can also be found in the sharp Hubble view. The Galilean moons have diameters of 3,000 to 5,000 kilometers or so, comparable in size to Earth's moon. But odd-shaped Amalthea and Thebe are only about 260 and 100 kilometers across respectively.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)]
The Big One
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Awesome!!
On a good clear night when looking at those Moons with binoculars, it sometimes looks like I can see them moving. (probably had a bit too much to drink)
Nice!
The seeing conditions in SoCal that night were terrible.
Jupiter was a boiling, fuzzy blob, so I wasn’t able to see this event live.
Yesterday morning in the midwest it was next to the moon, very clear and bright.
Juno bout dis?
Like.
I thought this phenomenon happened all the time with that little-known Jovian moon: Achne
LOL!
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