2026-09-15
A Daytime Eclipse: Moon Occults Venus
Today's window into deep space: A Daytime Eclipse: Moon Occults Venus. The story behind the image:
Why this matters
Behind the picture is the Moon, solar activity, the night sky. Light that left these objects long ago is only reaching us now, which is why a single image can double as a snapshot of the distant past.
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The science, from NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day
There was something behind the clouds. Upon close inspection, it was the Moon, which was hard to see yesterday around noon above the small village of Cessy, France. But soon, it was not only the Moon. As expected, a bright dot suddenly appeared from behind the Moon -- the planet Venus far in the distance. Captured in the single featured exposure, both appeared to show a crescent phase. The Moon's crescent was quite slight -- with only about 10 percent of its face illuminated by the Sun. In contrast, Venus's crescent was more full -- showing about 25 percent illumination. Venus appeared brighter because it is nearer the Sun and because its clouds are more reflective than the dark lunar surface. An occultation of Venus by the Moon is visible to only about 10 percent of the Earth, but in yesterday's event even most of that was experiencing daytime. APOD's main NASA site is moving: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
Image credit: Arnaud Mariat · Source: NASA APOD
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