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Clementine's camera reveals (from right to left) the Moon lit by earthshine, the Sun's glare rising over the Moon's dark limb, and the planets Saturn, Mars, and Mercury (the three dots at lower left). Planetshine is the dim illumination, by sunlight reflected from a planet, of all or part of the otherwise dark side of any moon orbiting the body.
Earthlight is the diffuse reflection of sunlight reflected from Earth's surface and clouds. Earthshine (an example of planetshine ), also known as the Moon's ashen glow , is the dim illumination of the otherwise unilluminated portion of the Moon by this indirect sunlight.
These particles scatter the light, reflecting some of it to the ground. Hence, the sky can remain illuminated even after the sun has set. Images showing a planetary terminator can be used to map topography: the position of the tip of a mountain behind the terminator line is measured when the Sun still or already illuminates it while the base of ...
A layer of snowfall increases local albedo, reflecting away sunlight, leading to local cooling. In principle, if no outside temperature change affects this area (e.g., a warm air mass ), the raised albedo and lower temperature would maintain the current snow and invite further snowfall, deepening the snow–temperature feedback.
The planets' phases are "new" when they are at inferior conjunction, passing more or less between the Sun and the Earth. Sometimes they appear to cross the solar disk, which is called a transit of the planet. At intermediate points on their orbits, these planets exhibit the full range of crescent and gibbous phases.
Paranal Observatory nights. [3] The concept of noctcaelador tackles the aesthetic perception of the night sky. [4]Depending on local sky cloud cover, pollution, humidity, and light pollution levels, the stars visible to the unaided naked eye appear as hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands of white pinpoints of light in an otherwise near black sky together with some faint nebulae or clouds ...
Closest star to the Sun with exactly six [29] exoplanets, and closest K-type main sequence star to the Sun with a multiplanetary system. One of the oldest stars with a multiplanetary system, although it is still more metal-rich than the Sun. None of the known planets is in the habitable zone. [30] 61 Virginis: Virgo: 13 h 18 m 24.31 s: −18 ...
Zodiacal light is produced by sunlight reflecting off dust particles in the Solar System known as cosmic dust. Consequently, its spectrum is the same as the solar spectrum. The material producing the zodiacal light is located in a lens-shaped volume of space centered on the sun and extending well out beyond the orbit of Earth.