Each time one of Jupiter’s large inner moons passes between the sun and the gas giant, a dark shadow is cast on the planet. That’s exactly what happened on March 28, 2004, when the Hubble Space Telescope imaged three of Jupiter’s moons eclipsing the sun. A series of images taken at different near-infrared wavelengths show the shadows of Io, Ganymede and Callisto traveling across Jupiter’s mighty disk. These moons make up three of the four Jovian moons discovered by Galileo in the early 1600s. The fourth moon, Europa, was located on the opposite side of the planet at the time of the observation. Watch the animation to see the event unfold.
Please give credit for this item to: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Video and eclipse images courtesy of NASA/ESA/University of Arizona/E. Karkoschka Io image courtesy of NASA/JPL/University of Arizona Ganymede image courtesy of NASA/JPL/DLR Callisto image courtesy of NASA/JPL/DLR
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