The biggest of the four major moons of Jupiter — Ganymede, shown above — is three-quarters the size of Mars and larger than any other moon in our solar system. But even it is dwarfed by the planet itself, bigger than a thousand Earths. When a solar eclipse happens on Jupiter, the planet virtually subsumes the moon, which casts a small black shadow against Jupiter’s surface. But on March 28th, 2004, three of those moons converged for a truly gorgeous series of shots caught by the Hubble space telescope. The video below, shot at various near-infrared wavelengths, shows a triple eclipse casting shadows on the surface of Jupiter. The shadows of Io, Ganymede, and Callisto can all be seen in the video, and a NASA image points out which is which. And a fourth major moon, Europa, remains invisible on the other side of the planet.
See the shadows of three moons dot Jupiter’s clouds in a triple eclipse
is a senior tech and policy editor focused on online platforms and free expression. Adi has covered virtual and augmented reality, the history of computing, and more for The Verge since 2011.
Video credit: NASA/ESA/University of Arizona/E. Karkoschka
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