October 7, 1996
Even the most precise clock in the world cannot measure how unlikely your existence really is.
Io's Shadow Credit:
Birthday · October 7, 1996
A little universe, just for you
Your date.
Ready to give.
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APOD published October 7, 1996. Full image credits are on the original APOD entry below. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Caught in the act earlier this summer by the Hubble Space Telescope, the volcanic moon Io (above and right of center) and its shadow (black dot) are seen here against Jupiter's clouds. Io's shadow is 2,262 miles in diameter (about the size of Io) as it races across the swirling cloud tops at about 38,000 miles per hour. From our perspective in the inner Solar System, dramatic scenes like this one are possible when Jupiter, Io, and the Sun line up. What would this scene look like when viewed from Jupiter's cloud tops? As the shadow passed over Jupiter, for observers along the shadow's track, Io's disk would appear to eclipse the sun. The situation is familiar to those Earth Dwellers who have seen a Solar Eclipse - visible from along the track of the Moon's shadow passing across the surface of the Earth.