Venus, The Moon and Jupiter - triple conjunction time

Although I went for an evening walk about one day late for the actual alignment of the Moon, Venus and Jupiter, it still looked pretty spectacular. I've put together some footage I captured on my walk. You'll see the Sun sets before I turn to the Moon and planets. Venus below and Jupiter above the crescent Moon.



Since this recording the Moon has 'departed' from the scene leaving Venus and Jupiter shine alone. Well, there's alway all the rest of the Universe present of course. :-) If you want to know what else to expect from the skies this month you should check out Our Night Sky by Carolyn Collins Peterson over at Astrocast.TV.


Here you see Venus and Jupiter early evening this week-end. Photo: Bente Lilja Bye


You hear Prokofiev's Violin Sonata No 2 played by my niece the violinist Sarah-Erin Bye with David Meier, Germany on piano. See and hear the entire concerto here.

Jupiter's Belt

Jupiter's Belt



Returns!

Jupiter Impact

Strike Jupiter



...and make another spot! :-)

Jupiter

Jupiter from Mars



Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona


This is how Jupiter looks like from Mars. It has slightly different colors, but it is recognizable and almost the same high quality as images taken by Hubble.

The HiRise camera normally takes awesome images of Mars. Thanks to the need for calibration HiRise directed it's 'lenses' towards Jupiter and the original image was blurred (and HiRise got what it needed) but the Earth was good enough for sharpening the images afterwards. Since HiRise is closer to Jupiter than we are the quality of the image ended up being on the same level as Hubble.

Titan Transit

Jupiter

Credit: C. Trujillo and S. Fisher (Gemini Observatory) and T. A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage)

Jupiter

Jupiter



Ground perspectives sharpest view so far.

Jupiter

Jupiter from the Ground



Credit: ESO/F. Marchis, M. Wong, E. Marchetti, P. Amico, S. Tordo

Jupiter

Glowing Jupiter



Credit: Gemini Observatory Image

Storms

Jupiter's Storms




Credit: NASA, ESA, Amy Simon-Miller (Goddard Space Flight Center), N. Chanover (NMSU), G. Orton (JPL)

Wandering Poles

Polar Wandering on Europa




Credit: Paul Schenk

Europa is a complex and dynamic moon, but now, global mapping of unusual large circular features on the ice-covered ocean world of Europa has revealed that Jupiter's curious icy moon is even more unstable than previously thought.



Because of the strong pull of Jupiter's gravity, Europa's icy shell bulges slightly at the equator and is flattened at the poles. The shell is also thought to be separated from Europa's core by an ocean, which would permit the shell to move en masse -- a phenomenon called true polar wander.

Europa is not the only planet or moon to have undergone polar wander. Mars has probably tilted over at least once, due to the formation of the Tharsis volcanos. Earth's outer layers have done so, as apparently have Enceladus, and possibly Miranda. Polar wander may be a common occurrence across the solar system, suggesting that planets in general are less stable than we have thought.

I think we might have to install a GPS network on Europa as well, to sort this out! :-)