Three Planets Rock
In the fading darkness before dawn,
a tilted triangle appeared to balance atop a
rock formation
off the southern tip of
Sicily.
Making up the points of the triangle are three of the four
brightest objects visible in Earth’s sky:
Jupiter,
Venus and the
Moon.
Though a thin
waning crescent,
most of the moon’s disk is visible due to
earthshine.
Captured in this image on 2022 April 27,
Venus (center) and Jupiter (left) are roughly three degrees apart --
and were headed toward a
close conjunction.
Conjunctions of
Venus and Jupiter
occur about once a year and are visible either
in the east before sunrise or in the west after sunset.
The featured image was taken
about an hour before the
arrival of the
brightest object in Earth’s sky –
the Sun.