Earth, Jupiter and a few of their respective moons, all in the same frame:
Sometimes the planets line up in such a way that you can see Earth and Jupiter in the same wide-angle shot. That is, if you were aboard the Mars Global Surveyor on May 22, 2003. When the Mars Orbiter Camera snapped this unique view, Earth was 86 million miles away, and Jupiter was 600 million miles away.Too fucking cool. Here's a diagram showing how the shot was taken:
This really gives one an idea of how truly massive gas giants like Jupiter really are in comparison to our own planet.
4 comments:
Astounding.
I'm particularly fond of these space-themed posts of yours, JBW.
Something I didn't know till recently: the Andromeda galaxy is on a collision course with our own and the two will merge around two and half billion years from now.
The new object could present a very different image of the local universe to any descendent of ours, should they exist and be curious enough to look (descendants of Sarah Palin won't be curious enough).
More importantly, will there still be football?
Thanks, quietmagpie. And I'd have to say: Football, yes. Soccer, I'm not so sure about.
Just pulling your chain, mate.
Speaking of massive gas giants, where is Rush Limbaugh ?
and here's a shot of earth from saturn...
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap061016.html
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