                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2024 July 27

                          Saturn at the Moon's Edge
                   Image Credit & Copyright: Chengcheng Xu

   Explanation: Saturn now rises before midnight in planet Earth's sky. On
   July 24, the naked-eye planet was in close conjunction, close on the
   sky, to a waning gibbous Moon. But from some locations on planet Earth
   the ringed gas giant was occulted, disappearing behind the Moon for
   about an hour from skies over parts of Asia and Africa. Because the
   Moon and bright planets wander through the sky near the ecliptic plane,
   such occultation events are not uncommon, but they can be dramatic. In
   this telescopic view from Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, Saturn is caught
   moments before its disappearance behind the lunar disk. The snapshot
   gives the illusion that Saturn hangs just above Glushko crater, a 43
   kilometer diameter, young, ray crater near the Moon's western edge. Of
   course, the Moon is 400 thousand kilometers away, compared to Saturn's
   distance of 1.4 billion kilometers.

                        Tomorrow's picture: sundance
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

