掩食参宿四

2023年12月15日

Betelgeuse Eclipsed
Image Credit & Copyright: Sebastian Voltmer

Explanation: Asteroid 319 Leona cast a shadow across planet Earth on December 12, as it passed in front of bright star Betelgeuse. But to see everyone’s favorite red giant star fade this time, you had to stand near the center of the narrow shadow path starting in central Mexico and extending eastward across southern Florida, the Atlantic Ocean, southern Europe, and Eurasia. The geocentric celestial event is captured in these two panels taken at Almodovar del Rio, Spain from before (left) and during the asteroid-star occultation. In both panels Betelgeuse is seen above and left, at the shoulder of the familiar constellation Orion. Its brightness diminishes noticeably during the exceedingly rare occultation when, for several seconds, the giant star was briefly eclipsed by a roughly 60 kilometer diameter main-belt asteroid.

Tomorrow’s picture: light-weekend

掩食参宿四
影像提供与版权: Sebastian Voltmer

说明: 在12月12日，小行星319 Leona掠过明亮参宿四的前方，并在地球投下了一道影子。不过，想要目睹这颗大家钟爱的红巨星变暗，你必须站在启始于墨西哥中部，向东延伸穿过佛罗里达南部、大西洋、欧洲南部和欧亚大陆的狭窄暗影带的中心附近。上面这二张摄于西班牙阿尔莫多瓦-德尔里奥的影像，就记录了这个地心系统天文事件发生前（左）及小行星掩星发生时的景观。在这两幅照片里，位于熟悉猎户座肩部的参宿四，出现在视野的左上方。在此例极为罕见的掩星事件里，这颗巨星被直径约60公里的主带小行星短暂的遮掩了数秒钟，因此其亮度明显降低。

明日的图片: light-weekend