The crescent Moon and earthshine over ESO's Paranal Observatory

This view shows the thin crescent Moon setting over ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. As well as the bright crescent the rest of the disc of the Moon can be faintly seen. This phenomenon is called earthshine. It is due to sunlight reflecting off the Earth and illuminating the lunar surface. By observing earthshine astronomers can study the properties of light reflected from Earth as if it were an exoplanet and search for signs of life.

This picture was taken on 27 October 2011 and also records the planets Mercury and Venus.

Crediti:

ESO/B. Tafreshi (twanight.org)

A proposito dell'immagine

Identificazione:eso1210a
Tipo:Fotografico
Data di pubblicazione:Mercoledì 29 Febbraio 2012 19:00
Notizie relative:eso1210
Dimensione:3000 x 1839 px

A proposito delll'oggetto

Nome:Paranal
Tipo:Unspecified : Technology : Observatory
Solar System
Categoria:Paranal

Formati delle immagini

JPEG grande
554,0 KB

Zoom


Sfondi

1024x768
68,7 KB
1280x1024
126,7 KB
1600x1200
196,9 KB
1920x1200
236,2 KB
2048x1536
331,6 KB