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Rare Eclipse On Uranus Captured By Hubble

Posted Sep 01, 2006 at 06:10AM by Kristine C. Listed in: News, Astronomy, Celestial Bodies Tags: Jupiter, Giants, Hubble Telescope
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Ariel as it casts a shadow over Uranus.


The Hubble Telescope has recently captured images of a rare Uranian solar eclipse. Basically, the planet Uranus and one of its icy moons, Ariel, were aligned in such a way that Ariel was casting a shadow onto the cloud tops of the planet. To an observer standing on Uranus' surface, this would have looked as a solar eclipse with the moon temporarily blocking the sun as it moves across the sky.

Though such occurrences are more common on other gas giants such as Jupiter, the event on Uranus is considered rare because the planet's orientation makes it difficult for an eclipse to happen.

Uranus is basically tilted on its side, unlike the other planets, and its moons orbit the planet above the equator. The satellites' paths aligns edge-on to the sun only every 42 years, when the sun shines directly over the equator. The last time that this phenomenon was observed was back in 1965, but it is only now with our present technology are accurate images available.

[Via Physorg.com] Permalink  |   Email this  |   Linking Blogs   |   Digg It!

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