Moon Illusion tricks the eye
Wednesday, January 19, 2011 - 11:01
in Astronomy & Space
Weve all experienced the Moon Illusion, where our own full Moon looks bigger when seen on the Earths horizon. But how about this illusion where you cant really tell which of these two moons of Saturn is actually bigger, or which is closer, as seen by the Cassini spacecraft? Here, Dione, top right, appears closer to the spacecraft because it is larger than the moon Enceladus, lower left. However, Enceladus was actually closer to Cassini when its visible light, narrow-angle camera took this image.