¿ Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2020 June 8 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. Atmospheric Ring of Venus Image Credit & Copyright: [3]Pete Lawrence ([4]Digital Sky) Explanation: Why is Venus surrounded by a bright ring? Sometimes called a [5]ring of fire, this [6]rare ring is caused by the Sun's light being visible all around an object. Usually seen [7]around the Moon during an annular solar eclipse, the ring of fire is also visible when either [8]Venus or [9]Mercury [10]cross the face of our Sun. In the [11]featured pictured taken last week, though, [12]Venus did not pass directly in front of the Sun -- the complete atmospheric ring was caused by sunlight [13]refracting through Venus' [14]thick atmosphere. Venus passed within one degree of [15]the Sun during its [16]inferior conjunction, as it moved from the evening to the morning sky. The extreme brightness of the nearby Sun made capturing such an image very difficult -- the featured image was only made possible by using a temporary filter to block direct sunlight. The image was captured from [17]Thorton, [18]Leicestershire, [19]UK. The pervasive [20]blue sky glow indicates that the image was actually captured [21]during the day. Follow APOD on: [22]Instagram, [23]Facebook, [24]Reddit, or [25]Twitter Tomorrow's picture: orion's mountains __________________________________________________________________ [26]< | [27]Archive | [28]Submissions | [29]Index | [30]Search | [31]Calendar | [32]RSS | [33]Education | [34]About APOD | [35]Discuss | [36]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [37]Robert Nemiroff ([38]MTU) & [39]Jerry Bonnell ([40]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [41]Specific rights apply. [42]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [43]ASD at [44]NASA / [45]GSFC & [46]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2006/VenusFireRing_Lawrence_1402.jpg 3. http://www.digitalsky.org.uk/about 4. http://www.digitalsky.org.uk/ 5. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090125.html 6. http://www.w7ftt.net/venus1.html 7. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap191225.html 8. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180204.html 9. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap191202.html 10. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120611.html 11. https://twitter.com/Avertedvision/status/1268109604493426690/photo/1 12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200603.html 13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refraction 14. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/venus/in-depth/#atmosphere_otp 15. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/sun/overview/ 16. https://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/I/Inferior+Conjunction 17. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Oh449g7kas 18. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leicestershire 19. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom 20. https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/blue-sky/en/ 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap061030.html 22. https://www.instagram.com/astronomypicturesdaily/ 23. https://www.facebook.com/AstronomyPictureOfTheDay 24. https://www.reddit.com/r/apod 25. https://twitter.com/apod/ 26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200607.html 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 30. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 31. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 32. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 33. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 34. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 35. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=200608 36. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200609.html 37. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 38. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 39. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 40. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 41. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 42. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 43. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 44. https://www.nasa.gov/ 45. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 46. http://www.mtu.edu/