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EarthSky | Saturn’s moon Titan occults star in new images

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The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope watched Saturn’s moon giant Titan occult, or move in entrance of, a star on November 29, 2022. On this picture, Titan is the massive world on the left. The star is on the proper (the ring round it’s a digital camera artifact, and the black dots are unhealthy pixels). Picture by way of ESO/ VLT/ Connor A. Nixon.

Titan occults a star

On November 29, 2022, Titan, Saturn’s giant moon, handed in entrance of a distant background star in an occasion referred to as an occultation by astronomers. The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope captured the occasion in pictures you may see on this web page.

Titan is the one moon in our solar system with a dense ambiance. And the astronomers mentioned this occultation supplied them a novel likelihood to review this distant moon, which is understood to have clouds, rain, rivers, lakes and seas of liquid hydrocarbons (like methane and ethane).

The Very Giant Telescopes, or VLT – utilizing its SPHERE adaptive optics was in a position to picture Titan regardless of its distance of greater than 700 million miles (1.1 billion km) from Earth. Astronomers had been in a position to obtain a .04 arcsecond decision of Titan and the passing star (resolution, to astronomers, is a sign of how clearly we see an object).

From Earth, Titan seems about .8 arcseconds large. That’s tiny, contemplating that one diploma of sky is the same as your pinky finger held at arm’s size. And it takes 60 arcminutes to make up one diploma, and 60 arcseconds to make up one arcminute.

Within the VLT picture, the rings across the star are diffraction artifacts, and the white and black dots are unhealthy pixels.

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The development of the occultation

Connor A. Nixon, a planetary scientist at NASA Goddard who researches planetary atmospheres and astrobiology (life within the universe), was a type of learning the occultation. Listed below are Nixon’s play-by-play pictures of the occultation, by way of Twitter.

Backside line: Titan occulted (handed in entrance of) a distant background star on November 29, 2022. The European Southern Observatory’s Very Giant Telescope captured wonderful pictures of the occasion.

Kelly Kizer Whitt

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In regards to the Writer:

Kelly Kizer Whitt has been a science author specializing in astronomy for greater than twenty years. She started her profession at Astronomy Journal, and she or he has made common contributions to AstronomyToday and the Sierra Membership, amongst different retailers. Her kids’s image ebook, Photo voltaic System Forecast, was revealed in 2012. She has additionally written a younger grownup dystopian novel titled A Totally different Sky. When she just isn’t studying or writing about astronomy and staring up on the stars, she enjoys touring to the nationwide parks, creating crossword puzzles, operating, tennis, and paddleboarding. Kelly lives together with her household in Wisconsin.





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