Hubble Spots Rare Triple Eclipse on Jupiter

Esahubble_opo0430a_1024

esahubble_opo0430a November 4th, 2004

Credit: NASA, ESA, and E. Karkoschka (University of Arizona)

At first glance, Jupiter looks like it has a mild case of the measles. Five spots - one colored white, one blue, and three black - are scattered across the upper half of the planet. Closer inspection by NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals that these spots are actually a rare alignment of three of Jupiter's largest moons - Io, Ganymede, and Callisto - across the planet's face. In this image, the telltale signatures of this alignment are the shadows [the three black circles] cast by the moons. Io's shadow is located just above centre and to the left; Ganymede's on the planet's left edge; and Callisto's near the right edge. Only two of the moons, however, are visible in this image. Io is the white circle in the centre of the image, and Ganymede is the blue circle at upper right. Callisto is out of the image and to the right.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo0430a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Callisto Ganymede Io Jupiter
Subject - Solar System
Planet > Type > Gas Giant
Planet > Satellite

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Pseudocolor Hubble (NICMOS) Infrared (Near-IR) 1.9 µm
Pseudocolor Hubble (NICMOS) Infrared (Near-IR) 1.7 µm
Pseudocolor Hubble (NICMOS) Infrared (Near-IR) 1.1 µm
Spectrum_base
Pseudocolor
Pseudocolor
Pseudocolor
Esahubble_opo0430a_1280
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ID
opo0430a
Subject Category
A.1.1.2   A.1.4  
Subject Name
Callisto, Ganymede, Io, Jupiter
Credits
NASA, ESA, and E. Karkoschka (University of Arizona)
Release Date
2004-11-04T06:01:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo0430a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
N/A
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
NICMOS, NICMOS, NICMOS
Color Assignment
Pseudocolor, Pseudocolor, Pseudocolor
Band
Infrared, Infrared, Infrared
Bandpass
Near-IR, Near-IR, Near-IR
Central Wavelength
1900, 1660, 1080
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
Equinox
Reference Value
Reference Dimension
Reference Pixel
Scale
Rotation
Coordinate System Projection:
Quality
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
http://www.spacetelescope.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
opo0430a
Metadata Date
2004-10-18T12:31:00-05:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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