Credit & Copyright: Antonio Finazzi
Explanation:
It is not a coincidence that planets line up.
That's because all of the
planets
orbit the
Sun in (nearly)
a single sheet called the plane of the ecliptic.
When viewed from inside that plane -- as
Earth dwellers are likely to do --
the planets all appear confined to a
single band.
It is a coincidence, though, when
three of the brightest planets all appear in nearly the same direction.
Such a coincidence was captured earlier this month.
Featured above (right to left),
Venus,
Saturn, and
Jupiter were all
imaged
together
in a line just after sunset, from the
San
Fermo Hills,
Bergamo,
Italy.
Joining the alignment are
Earth's Moon, and the position of the more distant
Uranus.
Bands of clouds streak across the sky toward the
setting Sun.
As Comet Leonard fades,
this planetary alignment -- absent the Moon --
should persist for the rest of the month.
Discovery + Outreach:
Graduate student research position open for APOD
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A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
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Publikacii s klyuchevymi slovami:
ecliptic - planets - Ekliptika - planety
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