The probe orbiting the moon has got a stunning close-up view of “Great coupling“Jupiter and Saturn from Earth’s rocky satellite.
Monday (December 21), Jupiter And the Saturn It appeared in the night sky closer than it did about 800 years ago during what is known as the “Great Conjunction”. All over the world people all over the world saw and photographed the planets, which almost looked like one bright “star” in the sky. However, we weren’t the only Earthlings to receive a heavenly offer.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) vehicle, which was launched in 2009 and has enough fuel to circle the moon for another six years, spotted the cosmic event all the way from the moon.
Related: This is what Jupiter and Saturn look like from Mars
The Lunar Reconnaissance Camera (LROC) narrow-angle camera (NAC) captured an incredible image of two planets just a few hours after the pair’s closest separation point (0.1 degrees), which occurred at TK. Now, while Jupiter and Saturn might look like a single glowing ball to the naked eye, with the detailed NAC view, you can clearly solve the individual planets. In fact, the image provides so much detail that you can faintly see Saturn’s rings.
Here on Earth, sky observers were able to see the moons of Jupiter with DSLR cameras and even basic telescopes, although Saturn’s rings were only visible with high-powered telescopes.
When NAC took this image of two planets, Jupiter was four times brighter than Saturn, so the brightness of the original image was adjusted to make both of them equally visible.
While Jupiter and Saturn have been closely linked once every 20 years, the planets have not appeared that close since 1623. In addition, the planetary alignments came just a few days before Christmas, with many dubbing the bright event a “Christmas star,” adding More than astrological excitement.
Email Chelsea Gohd at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @chelsea_gohd. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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