Ganymede's shadow on Jupiter's atmosphere
Ganymede's shadow on Jupiter's atmosphere
Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon, casts its shadow on Jupiter's clouds. A hypothetical observer would experience a total solar eclipse in the oval shadow. These are much more frequent on Jupiter than on Earth. The four large Galilean moons often pass between the Sun and Jupiter – Ganymede once in seven days, Europa twice and Io four times. And because the moons orbit in a plane close to Jupiter's orbit, the moon's shadows are often cast on the planet. 'Citizen Scientist' Thomas Thomopoulos created this colour-enhanced image using raw JunoCam data from NASA's Juno mission. It was acquired very close to Jupiter, making Ganymede's shadow appear particularly large.
