by Ann » Wed Sep 15, 2010 3:46 pm
Have you taken those images yourself, nuclearcat? They are lovely.
And Maciej Soltynski's picture of Venus reappearing from behind the Moon is fantastic. Apart from the absolutely delicious conjunction, so that the Moon looks as if it had got a shiny red nose - well, a shiny white nose, of course - this picture testifies to the brightness difference between Venus and the Moon. Or rather, it testifies to the difference in albedo, reflectivity, between those two solar system bodies. Venus is covered in thick off-white clouds, and so is very reflective. The Moon has no atmosphere and is generally dark grey-brown i color. It reflects only about 7% of the light that hits it.
Imagine if the Moon had been as reflective as Venus. When such a Moon was full we wouldn't have been able to see any stars in the sky at all.
Ann
Have you taken those images yourself, nuclearcat? They are lovely.
And Maciej Soltynski's picture of Venus reappearing from behind the Moon is fantastic. Apart from the absolutely delicious conjunction, so that the Moon looks as if it had got a shiny red nose - well, a shiny [i]white[/i] nose, of course - this picture testifies to the brightness difference between Venus and the Moon. Or rather, it testifies to the difference in albedo, reflectivity, between those two solar system bodies. Venus is covered in thick off-white clouds, and so is very reflective. The Moon has no atmosphere and is generally dark grey-brown i color. It reflects only about 7% of the light that hits it.
Imagine if the Moon had been as reflective as Venus. When such a Moon was full we wouldn't have been able to see any stars in the sky at all.
Ann