Jupiter and Its Moons from Mars Surveyor

August 03, 2003

Jupiter_a100


The image above shows Jupiter and three of its four largest satellites as observed from the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) in early May of this year. The Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) took advantage of a fortuitous planetary conjunction (Sun, Earth and Jupiter in line together) to view both the Earth and Jupiter while in orbit about the Red Planet. At the time this image was taken, the orbiting camera was nearly 1 billion kilometers (nearly 600 million miles) from Jupiter. This image has been highly contrast-enhanced and "colorized" in order to demonstrate the contrasts between Jupiter and its moons. See also the Earth Science Picture of the Day for May 30 and 31, 2003.

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