Planets Over Easter Island
Explanation:
It isn't every day that planets line up behind a stone giant.
For one thing, it helps to have a good
planet line-up,
such as occurred in the sky just last month.
For another, it helps to be on
Easter Island, where over 800 large stone statues exist.
The
Easter Island statues, stand, on the average, over
twice as tall as a person and have over 200 times as much mass.
Few specifics are known about the history or meaning of the
unusual statues,
but many believe that they were created about
500 years ago in the images of local leaders of a lost civilization.
Pictured above, the
Moon,
Venus, and
Mars
can be seen behind
Ahu Tahai, a famous Easter Island statue.
The bright star
Aldebaran is also visible.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
