While many of us on Earth were craning our necks, trying to get a glimpse of the so-called “Christmas star” earlier this week, a robotic spacecraft orbiting the moon would be able to rotate its camera around. Photo of the celestial phenomenon world.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) photo was found “The Great Conjunction”, which at a time when Jupiter and Saturn’s large gas planets come very close to the sky, they merge into a bright object from a distance. The connection of such planets has given birth to the phenomenon of what some people call Bethlehem or Christmas Star. And while Jupiter and Saturn converge every 20 years, this year was predicted to be a rare sky show not seen in 800 years as the planets appear closer at a time when many people can witness it.
Cloudy with overcast skies for many Sky Watchers in Michigan. But the LRO investigation on the moon had no such problem. Saturn’s rings showed when the brightness of the LRO’s camera caught the distant planets from each other.
The LROC NAC captured this view a few hours after the point of the closest split (0.1) between the two giant planets. With intense focus … you can see that the two planets actually differ by as much as 10 Jupiter diameters, ”LRO staff said on their blog.
[NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].
“The constant motion of the planets means that the moment when Jupiter and Saturn come close is fleeting; A day later (December 22) you can see and both planets are already visible in the distance. Due to the different time it takes for each planet to orbit the Sun, Jupiter and Saturn are aligned almost every twenty years, and this connection is also quite rare – the two planets will not appear so close (0.1 ° apart) again until March 2080. ”
The LRO was launched in 2009 and plans to orbit the moon for the next six years, according to Space.com.
