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Credit & Copyright: A.J. Smadi
Explanation:
This month,
bright planet Saturn rises in evening skies,
its rings oriented nearly edge-on when viewed from planet Earth.
And in the early morning hours on July 6,
it posed very briefly with the
International Space Station
when viewed from a location in Federal Way,
Washington, USA.
This well-planned image, a stack of video frames,
captures their momentary conjunction in the same telescopic
field of view.
With the ISS in
low Earth orbit,
space station and gas giant planet
were separated by almost 1.4 billion kilometers.
Their apparent sizes are comparable but the
ISS was much brighter
than Saturn and the ringed planet's brightness has been
increased for visibility in
the stacked image.
Precise timing and an exact location were needed to
capture
the ISS/Saturn conjunction.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: conjunction
Publications with words: conjunction
See also: