[이광식의 천문학+] The ringed ‘Saturn-like moon’ was captured exquisitely : ZUM News

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A moon resembling Saturn in the sky of Guatemala, South America. Francisco Sojuel

The moon, which looks like a ringed Saturn, was captured in the lens of an astrophotographer and was published on the August 2nd issue of ‘Astronomical Photography of the Day (APOD)’, attracting attention.

This rare image of the moon was captured because the photographer was lucky enough to capture the timing of the clouds crossing in front of the moon in exquisite detail. If you look at the shape of the moon, it looks like a crescent moon, but it was taken just before sunrise, so you can tell that it is the old moon. If you see the moon like this right following sunset, it’s a new moon.

The lower part of the moon, like the eyebrows, is brightly lit by direct sunlight, and the other grayish parts are dimly lit by light reflected from the Earth’s waters. This phenomenon is called terrestrial tectonics, and when viewed from the moon during the day, the Earth appears regarding 90 times brighter than the full moon.

The first person to discover the tectonic structure of the moon was Leonardo da Vinci of Italy, an all-rounder of the Renaissance. That’s why it’s called ‘da Vinci Glow’. Da Vinci documented this phenomenon in the early 1500s, and discovered that both the Earth and the Moon reflect sunlight.

Although da Vinci lived in the celestial era, 100 years before Galileo, who established the heliocentric theory, it is worthy of being said to be the best intellect of mankind when he accurately penetrated this phenomenon. He would never have known if the painter’s eye and the scientist’s mind had not worked together.

This photo was taken on December 24, 2019, two days before the moon slipped in front of the sun to create a solar eclipse. It can be seen that a solar eclipse is a celestial phenomenon that only occurs during the last moon. The lights of downtown Guatemala can be seen behind the massive Pacaya Volcano in the foreground of the image.

Kwangsik Lee Science Columnist [e-mail]

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