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Credit & Copyright: Pete Lawrence
(Digital Sky)
Explanation:
Why is Venus surrounded by a bright ring?
Sometimes called a
ring of fire, this
rare ring
is caused by the Sun's light being visible all around an object.
Usually seen
around the Moon during an annular solar eclipse,
the ring of fire is also visible when either
Venus or
Mercury
cross the face of our Sun.
In the
featured pictured taken last week, though,
Venus did not pass directly in front of the Sun --
the complete atmospheric ring was caused by sunlight
refracting through Venus'
thick atmosphere.
Venus passed within one degree of
the Sun during
its
inferioráconjunction,
as it moved from the evening to the morning sky.á
The extreme brightness of the nearby Sun made capturing such an image very difficult
-- the featured image was only made possible by using a temporary filter to block
direct sunlight.
The image was captured from
Thorton,
Leicestershire,
UK.
The pervasive
blue sky glow
indicates that the image was actually captured
during the day.
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Venus
Publications with words: Venus
See also: