LONDON: Hubble Space Telescope has captured three of Jupiter’s moons marching across the huge planet’s disc, a stunning sight that happens only once or twice every 10 years.
The rare triple-moon conjunction on Jupiter, which Hubble witnessed on Jan. 24, involved Io, Callisto and Europa — three of the gas giant’s four Galilean moons (so named because they were discovered by astronomer Galileo Galilei in the early 17th century).
“The moons in these photos have distinctive colors. The ancient, cratered surface of Callisto is brownish; the smooth icy surface of Europa is yellow-white; and the volcanic, sulfur-dioxide surface of Io is orange,” representatives of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, which operates Hubble.
