M22 and the Wanderers
Image Credit &
Copyright:
Damian Peach
Explanation:
Wandering
through the constellation Sagittarius,
bright planets Mars and Saturn appeared together
in early morning skies over the
last
weeks.
They are captured in this 3 degree wide field-of-view from March 31
in a close celestial triangle with large globular
star
cluster Messier 22.
Of course M22 (bottom left) is about 10,000 light-years distant,
a massive ball of over 100,000 stars much older than our Sun.
Pale yellow and shining by reflected sunlight, Saturn (on top) is
about 82 light-minutes away.
Look carefully and you can spot large moon Titan
as a pinpoint of light at about the 5 o'clock position in the glare
of Saturn's overexposed disk.
Slightly brighter and
redder Mars
is 9 light-minutes distant.
While both planets are moving on toward upcoming oppositions,
by July Mars will become much
brighter still,
with good telescopic views
near its 2018 opposition a mere 3.2 light-minutes from planet Earth.
Source: NASA