Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2022 June 29
The featured image is a circular, fisheye, all-sky image 
showing every planet in the Solar System lined up horizontally 
along the image center, along with Earth's Moon. Trees and 
hills from the Atacama Desert link populate the outer circle edge.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Solar System Family Portrait
Image Credit & Copyright: Alexis Trigo

Explanation: Yes, but have you ever seen all of the planets at once? A rare roll-call of planets has been occurring in the morning sky for much of June. The featured fisheye all-sky image, taken a few mornings ago near the town of San Pedro de Atacama in Chile, caught not only the entire planet parade, but the Moon between Mars and Venus. In order, left to right along the ecliptic plane, members of this Solar System family portrait are Earth, Saturn, Neptune, Jupiter, Mars, Uranus, Venus, Mercury, and Earth. To emphasize their locations, Neptune and Uranus have been artificially enhanced. The volcano just below Mercury is Licancabur. In July, Mercury will move into the Sun's glare but reappear a few days later on the evening side. Then, in August, Saturn will drift past the direction opposite the Sun and so become visible at dusk instead of dawn. The next time that all eight planets will be simultaneously visible in the evening sky will be in 2122.

Notable Submissions to APOD: Morning Planet Parade 2022 June
Tomorrow's picture: open space


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