domingo, 23 de agosto de 2020

APOD: 2020 August 15 – Mars at the Moons Edge

APOD: 2020 August 15 – Mars at the Moons Edge

Mars at the Moon's Edge
Image Credit & Copyright: Sergio Scauso

See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download
the highest resolution version available.

Explanation: Does the Moon ever block out Mars? Yes, the Moon occasionally moves in front of all of the Solar System's planets. Just this past Sunday, as visible from some locations in South America, a waning gibbous Moon eclipsed Mars. The featured image from CórdobaArgentina captured this occultation well, showing a familiar cratered Moon in the foreground with the bright planet Mars unusually adjacent. Within a few seconds, Mars then disappeared behind the Moon, only to reappear a few minutes later across the Moon. Today the Moon moves close to, but not in front of, Venus. Because alignments will not have changed by much, the next two times the Moon passes through this part of the sky – in early September and early October – it will also occult Mars, as seen from parts of South America.

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