Planetary Picture of the Day
Week of October 15, 2024
We kick off with aurorae on Saturn and then spend the rest of the week with Earth, looking up and looking back.
Tuesday, 15 October 2024
Saturnian Aurorae
While we are bragging about our aurorae around the globe at wild latitudes, the Earth is not alone in having them. Serious competition comes from the "Lord of the Rings" (Saturn - but other planets have rings, too). Check out this amazing image captured by the Hubble space telescope of Saturn in ultraviolet! At the time, Saturn was 1.3 billion kilometers from Earth.
Wednesday, 16 October 2024
Aringa Ora O Te Tupuna (The Living Face of the Ancestors)
Award-winning photographer Josh Dury captured this stunning picture of the Milky Way over Easter Island and some of its famous Moai. From his Instagram post: "A truly unforgettable night from one of the darkest places on Earth, surrounded by a place and a community that is close to my heart. One of the most powerful, emotional moments of my life."
Thursday,17 October 2024
Hera's First Images
Hera’s Asteroid Framing Camera (AFC) captured this farewell image of Earth (bottom left) and the Moon (center) on 11 October from a distance of approximately 1.6 million km. Earth is oriented with north pointing upwards, with the Pacific Ocean illuminated by the Sun.
Incorporating two baffle-protected cameras for redundancy, each of Hera’s two Asteroid Framing Cameras is a 1020x1020 monochrome visible light sensor. The cameras are used both for navigation and for scientific investigation and were produced by Jena-Optronik in Germany, based on its ASTROhead design.
Friday, 18 October 2024
Annular Eclipse 2024
The second solar eclipse of 2024 began in the Pacific. On October 2nd, the Moon's shadow swept from west to east, with an annular eclipse visible along a narrow antumbral shadow path tracking mostly over the ocean. The eclipse made its only major landfall near the southern tip of South America and then ended in the southern Atlantic. The dramatic total annular eclipse phase is known to some as a ring of fire. Taken from Anakena Beach on the north end of Easter Island.
