Close Encounter with Jupiter: Tonight, September 26th the planet Jupiter will be closer to the Earth

[elleng]

than it has been since 1963, 59 years ago! The largest planet in our Solar System will be just 370 million miles away, which sounds like a lot, but for Jupiter is practically touching. Just how big is Jupiter? If we mashed all the other planets together (include Pluto if you want to), then waved a magic wand over it and doubled the mass, you still would not have Jupiter. Even with a pair of binoculars, tonight you could see at least some of the four largest moons of Jupiter, Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. These moons were discovered in 1610 by Galileo and are called the Galilean Satellites. Ganymede is the biggest moon in the Solar System and is larger in diameter than the planet Mercury (but smaller mass). Also, NASA is slamming into an asteroid this evening at 7:14 pm EDT. The DART mission is to study how a satellite impact alters the orbit of an asteroid and possibly be used in the future to deflect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth.

https://www.facebook.com/jmu.planetarium

[Walleye]

1. I remember one clear cold night when I saw the moons of Jupiter with binoculars

It was practically a religious experience because it was so enlightening. I can’t put words or numbers to it, but I understand some things a little better, such as proportion

[Moostache]

2. I had a similar reaction with a telescope...

Seeing the Jovian system with my own eyes, retracing the steps of Galileo and understanding that there was indelible proof that the Earth was never the center of the universe, only the center of our pitiful abilities to comprehend the universe...it was an amazing feeling topped only by a brief episode around the same time (some 25 years ago now) where I had an experience that lasted but seconds and has profoundly affected me to this day...I can't fully describe it, but it was an understanding that everything seen and unseen, known and unknown is connected, is part of a singular universal consciousness/being. There was an intense peace and stillness in that moment and I won't ever forget it as long as I persist in this collection of cells and systems that form "me".

Carl Sagan said (paraphrasing) humanity is special in that as far as we know for sure, humans are the only matter in the universe that is made up of star-stuff contemplating that very same star stuff. What I experienced certainly made Sagan's words more real and prescient to me forever more. We are all made of the same chemicals and physics. We are all going to eventually return to a lower state of entropy and our molecules will form something else in our stead...that period between birth and self-awareness and then from awareness throughout 'life' is a miracle for everyone. Using that interval to do anything other than expand the universal knowledge and understanding seems like a sacrilege to me.

[keithbvadu2]

3. Duck!

The moon is slowly moving away from earth.

Figuring back through time, tall dinosaurs had to duck.

(It's a yoke, folks.)

[elleng]

4. YOKE, and moon invisible now!