A probe orbiting the moon got a stunning close-up image of the “great combinationof Jupiter and Saturn from Earth’s rocky satellite.
Monday (December 21), Jupiter and Saturn appeared closer to the night sky than they had in about 800 years during what is known as a “great conjunction.” People all over the world watched and photographed the planets, which looked almost like a single, bright “star” in the sky. We Earthlings weren’t the only ones to get a heavenly show, however.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which launched in 2009 and has enough fuel to orbit the moon for another six years, saw the cosmic event all the way from the moon.
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The Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) captured an incredible image of the two planets just hours after the pair’s closest point of separation (0.1 degrees), which occurred at TK . While Jupiter and Saturn may have looked like one glowing sphere to the naked eye, the detailed representation of the NAC allows you to clearly resolve the individual planets. In fact, the image provides so much detail that you can even faintly see Saturn’s rings.
Here on Earth, skywatchers could see Jupiter’s moons with DSLR cameras and even base telescopes, although Saturn’s rings were usually only visible with higher-powered telescopes.
When the NAC captured this image of the two planets, Jupiter was about four times brighter than Saturn, so the brightness of the original image was adjusted to make both equally visible.
While Jupiter and Saturn have a close conjunction once every 20 years, the planets have not appeared so close since 1623. Additionally, the planets’ alignment came just a few days before Christmas, with many calling the bright event a “ Christmas star. ” even more to the astronomical excitement.
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