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Triple Eclipse on Jupiter

Posted by michael on from the triple-your-pleasure dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Hubble Space Telescope captured a stunning image of a rare triple eclipse. Three of Jupiter's three big moons--Io, Ganymede and Callisto--eclipsed large portions of face of the giant planet. Such an event happens about once a decade."

1 of 13 comments (clear)

  1. Re:A minor nit ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    These eclipses on Jupiter are the same as our lunar eclipses, which are visible to anyone, anywhere that can see the moon at the time they happen. Since we on Earth are so far from Jupiter, we see the entire sunlit side of Jupiter, so we see all the eclipses. Only a spacecraft close to Jupiter (or way off on some angle to it) would be unable to see the whole sunlit side. (I know that orbital paralax and our finite distance alter this a little, but not by much).