Renowned UK astro-imager Damian Peach created this stunning video of a rotating Jupiter with images captured from Barbados in early to mid-June, three weeks before Juno’s arrival at the gas giant.
Observing
See the young Moon meet the gas giants at dusk, 3–5 October
Skywatchers in Western Europe and the UK should look low to the south-southwest at nautical dusk on 3 and 5 October 2019 to view the waxing Moon pass close to Jupiter and Saturn, the Solar System’s largest gas giant planets. Observers at northern temperate latitudes should make the most of any opportunities to view these planets before they are lost in twilight.
News
Largest planets likely formed first from icy “planetary pebbles”
Researchers at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and Queen’s University in Canada have unravelled the mystery of how Jupiter and Saturn likely formed using computer simulations. The discovery, which changes our view of how all planets might have formed, also suggests that the gas giants in the solar system probably formed before the terrestrial planets.