When the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, it casts a shadow on our planet, and if we are inside this shadow, we can observe a total solar eclipse. On Jupiter, around which four large moons revolve, total solar eclipses occur more often. In late February, NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured one of them as a dark spot on Jupiter’s surface that is the shadow of its largest moon, Ganymede.
The picture was taken during the next approach of the ship to the planet, from a distance of regarding 71,000 km. The distance of Ganymede from Jupiter is estimated at regarding 1 million km. Its three other major satellites are known as Io, Europa, and Callisto. But Ganymede surpasses in size not only them, but also all the satellites of the solar system, and is only 8% inferior in diameter to the planet Mercury.
The main goal of the Juno mission is to obtain data on the weather and dynamic processes on the gas giant Jupiter. The ongoing observations help scientists get an idea of exoplanets with similar parameters.
