March 25, 2017
The cosmos is full of spectacular things: ringed planets, exploding suns, rivers of stars across the night.
Ganymede's Shadow
Birthday · March 25, 2017
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APOD published March 25, 2017. Credit: Damian Peach. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Approaching opposition early next month, Jupiter is offering some of its best telescopic views from planet Earth. On March 17, this impressively sharp image of the solar system's ruling gas giant was taken from a remote observatory in Chile. Bounded by planet girdling winds, familiar dark belts and light zones span the giant planet spotted with rotating oval storms. The solar system's largest moon Ganymede is above and left in the frame, its shadow seen in transit across the northern Jovian cloud tops. Ganymede itself is seen in remarkable detail along with bright surface features on fellow Galilean moon Io, right of Jupiter's looming disk.
Image credit: Damian Peach