As many are able to tell, the planet shown above is the planet Jupiter. As many of you who were able to actually witness the partial or solar (depending on where you were that day) eclipse you can tell that this event is happening on Jupiter as well, except with 3 of its moons!
Out of all the planets in our solar system, the gas planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, have the most moons circling them.
Even with over 60 moons gravitating around Jupiter, these eclipses are a rare event for Jupiter. For a recap, a Solar eclipse is when the Sun and the moon(s) come into perfect alignment during the day in which the shadow of the moon(s) are cast onto the a planet.
The moons that are in this solar eclipse are Callisto, Io and Europa. Callisto is the moon to the very left with its shadow shown on the bottom of Jupiter. Io is the moon closet to Jupiter and has its reflection closet to the Jupiter's Big Red Spot. Europa is the moon in the middle of the two same with its shadow.
Just looking at the moons' sizes compared to Jupiter just goes to emphasize how big Jupiter is! These moons are almost as big as Mercury too! Let's just hope Jupiter doesn't get any closer to us than it is!
No comments:
Post a Comment