Io eclipses and transits Ganymede

Posted By Emily Lakdawalla

2009/08/18 04:54 CDT

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I give a tip of the hat to Jason Perry at The Gish Bar Times and a Wayne's World-style "We're not worthy" bow and scrape to amateur astronomer Christopher Go for this incredible animation. Go observed a mutual event of two of Jupiter's moons, smaller Io and great big Ganymede, in which first Io's shadow and then the moon itself passed in front of Ganymede as seen from his observing site in the Philippines.

© Christopher Go, Cebu, Philippines

Io eclipses and transits Ganymede

On August 16, 2009, amateur astronomer Christopher Go captured this fourteen-frame animation on two of Jupiter's moons. You can see smaller Io's shadow cross Ganymede just before the moon itself transits.