[imagesource: NASA/JPL/DLR]

You have probably seen those incredible close-up shots of Jupiter and its swirling clouds before.

But have you seen this amazing time-lapse video of its moons, Europa and Io, orbiting the gas giant?

No? Well, stick around.

The shot of Europa and Io making moves around the monstrous planet has been viewed ferociously on Reddit over the last couple of days, reported IFL Science.

The video is so pristine that some people are even questioning if it is real or not:

While it’s good to be sceptical about images shared online — particularly when fake images get circulated online as real for clicks — we are happy to confirm that the gorgeous short video is 100 per cent legit.

The time-lapse was made by Kevin M.Gill, a NASA-JPL engineer and expert processor of planetary images who thoroughly enjoys capturing this celestial monstrosity.

Have a look:

People seemed to like the Europa/Io/Titan gifs, so as an experiment I went and made a short video of them. The Voyage of the Moons.

Image data via @CassiniSaturn https://t.co/8SLjERSRWc pic.twitter.com/kvznw9ck6J

— Kevin M. Gill (@kevinmgill) October 22, 2018

The “King of Planets” is not lacking on the moon front.

Scientists think Jupiter has 79 moons, 53 of which are named moons, with another 26 awaiting official names.

Io is the closest to the planet, while Europa is the sixth-closest to the planet as well as being the sixth-largest moon in the Solar System.

In fact, this positioning of the moons is why some folks doubted the veracity of the video:

One of the reasons people have been sceptical of the clip is that Io, which is closer to Jupiter, appears to be orbiting slower than Europa, which is further away. However, there’s a simple explanation for this.

“The motion isn’t wholly accurate as I made it to look prettier than it was correct,” Gill explained on Twitter. “It’s meant to portray the motion visible from a spacecraft that’s moving at a velocity faster than the moons are orbiting. So, from a stationary perspective, Io would move faster than Europa.”

In essence, it is a bit of a common illusion, similar to how when you look at cars on a highway with an aeroplane moving in the same direction in the background, the cars appear to be going faster than the plane, but of course, the plane is faster.

Kevin used images taken by the Cassini space probe on a flyby of Jupiter in 2001 in order to gain a gravitational assist and make other observations before it headed on to Saturn.

He has some excellent shots of Saturn, too:

Polarized Near-Infrared view of Saturn, processed using Cassini data taken in November 2012https://t.co/wvbQqzlI8H pic.twitter.com/CI44Lb2qC2

— Kevin M. Gill (@kevinmgill) March 25, 2020

You should definitely follow him on Twitter if you’re keen to see the gas giant and fellow planets more often.

[source:iflscience]