I've been monitoring the progress of the planets Jupiter and Venus as they slowly begin moving ever closer to the Wednesday, March 1, 2023 conjunction in the evening sky.
This evening I set up my tripod and camera near SC Hwy 321 to get a good background and foreground shot of how the two planets and the Young Crescent Moon appear to travelers.
I was about to get a really outstanding shot of the road and traveling cars with the heavenly display in the background. Then another close-up shot of Luna's lovely crescent form next to Jupiter and Venus just above the tree-line. Then two more close-ups of the Moon and Jupiter....and when I reviewed my pictures to edit and label, I found I'd captured not just one, but five moons in my close-up.
Jupiter's four largest moons: Io, Callisto, Ganymede, and Europa all appear in the close-ups with our own moon looming large in the foreground.
Although the four Galilean Satellites (or Jovian Moons) appear very small compared to our own Luna because of the distances -- Jupiter currently sits at approximately 536 million miles, (or 862.6 kilometers) from our Earth -- in actuality three of the moons that orbit the largest gas giant planet are actually larger than our own Moon, which is actually the 5th largest of the estimated 200+ moons and satellites that orbit the other planets in our Solar System.
Luna, our own lovely lady, has an equatorial diameter of 2,159.2 miles (3,475 km).
Jupiter's closest and smallest of the four Galilean Moons is Io, which has a equatorial diameter of 2,260 miles (3,640 km) -- about less than a few percent larger.
The next moon, Europa, has an equatorial diameter of 1,940 miles (3,100 km) -- or only about 90% of the Moon's diameter.
Ganymede is actually the largest moon in our Solar System with an equatorial diameter of 3,275 miles (5,270 km), which makes it slightly larger than the planets Mercury which has a diameter of 3,030 miles (4,878 km) and Pluto (which is STILL a planet!) at 1,473 miles (2,370 km).
And finally we have Callisto, which has an equatorial diameter or 2,995 miles (or 4,821 km).
Another fun fact is that all of those four Jovian Moons actually orbit Jupiter farther than our own Moon actually does, though the tidal forces of the largest planet of the Solar System causes them to orbit much faster.
Our own Lunar satellite orbits the Earth at an average of about 238,855 miles (384,399 km) -- about the space that could be occupied by 30 Earths. The Moon travels around our planet once every 27.3 days in an elliptical orbit that varies at certain times of the year.
Io travels around Jupiter at an average distance of 262,000 miles (422,000 kilometers) from the gas giant, and orbits the planet once every 42 hours, or 1.8 Earth days.
Europa is next out at about 417,000 miles (671,000 kilometers) and orbits Jupiter once every 85 Earth hours, or about three-and-a-half Earth days.
Ganymede is about 665,000 miles (1,070,000 kilometers) from Jupiter completes one orbit at about 172 hours, or just over one Earth week.
And finally, Callisto sits at about 1,170,000 miles (1,883,000 kilometers) and takes about 17 Earth days to complete one orbit of the planet.
Well my friends, I hope y'all learned something new and interesting about one of our more interesting planetary neighbors today. Also keep watching the skies (on hopefully blessedly storm-free evenings) for Jupiter and Venus to meet in conjunction soon.
Till then have a blessed evening and be sure to keep your eyes to the night skies, y'all.
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