.jpg)
Solar Eclipse on Jupiter. Photo: NASA.
Kevin Gill, a software engineer at NASA, shared the image of Io’s shadow on Jupiter’s surface on the social media platform Twitter. The photo, taken by the Juno probe, revealed a solar eclipse as seen from orbit.
The shadow of Io appears much sharper than the shadow of Earth’s Moon on Earth’s surface during a lunar eclipse. Experts explain that this is due to the size of the Sun as seen from Jupiter. “The Sun appears much smaller from Jupiter, making the shadows more distinct,” explained photographer Doug Ellison.
Io is so large and close to Jupiter that it appears about four times the size of the Sun when observed from the giant planet, according to astrophysicist Katie Mack from North Carolina Geological Society. The proximity of this moon to Jupiter creates an extremely thin penumbral region (forming around the edges of the shadow).
Juno began orbiting Jupiter on July 5, 2016. Its mission is to study the composition of Jupiter, as well as assess its atmosphere, gravity, and magnetic fields in the polar regions of the planet. NASA plans for Juno to continue studying Jupiter from orbit until July 2021, after which the spacecraft will be commanded to enter the planet’s atmosphere and self-destruct.
Last year, Gill also shared an image of massive storms sweeping the Southern Hemisphere of Jupiter. At the time of the photograph, Juno was flying about 71,400 km above the planet’s uppermost cloud layer.