The University of Western Australia’s Zadko Telescope will be used to capture a rare astronomical event: an “occultation” (eclipse), where Saturn’s largest moon Titan will pass in front of a star.
The event will illuminate the atmosphere on Titan, giving scientists a rare opportunity to examine it in detail. It is expected to take place on Wednesday 18 July 11.09pm Western Australia time and last for about four minutes.
At the same time, the occultation will be recorded by a camera that is mounted at the telescope of the Stratospheric Observatory of Infrared Astronomy’s SOFIA 747 aircraft, a project funded by NASA and the German Aerospace Centre. SOFIA will fly above the clouds over the Pacific Ocean to take images of the event.
UWA Associate Professor David Coward said it was an exciting moment in astronomy for Australia, and pleasing that UWA’s Zadko Telescope had been chosen to help answer deep questions about the Universe.