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Credit & Copyright: The Clementine Project
Explanation:
The Plane of the Ecliptic
is illustrated in this Clementine star tracker camera image which reveals
(from right to left)
the Moon lit by
Earthshine, the Sun's corona rising over
the Moon's dark limb, and the planets
Saturn,
Mars,
and Mercury.
The ecliptic plane is defined as the imaginary plane containing the Earth's
orbit around the Sun. In the course of a year,
the Sun's apparent path
through the sky lies in this plane.
The planetary bodies of our solar system all
tend to lie near this plane, since they were formed from the Sun's spinning,
flattened, proto-planetary disk.
The snapshot above nicely captures a momentary line-up looking
out along this fundamental plane of our solar system.
Information:
Thursday, September 26 - A Total Lunar Eclipse
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day