Triple solar eclipse on Jupiter

The Hubble space telescope peers millions of light years into the universe to study stars. But it recently focused on Jupiter, a few light minutes away. The photo is taken from CNN.

The Hubble space telescope peers hundreds, thousands, millions of light-years into the universe to study novas, quasars and nebulas.

But weeks ago, it pulled its focus way in close -- to just light-minutes away -- to view a rare and beautiful spectacle at the planet Jupiter.

Three big moons crossed past it at the same time, casting their shadows onto Jupiter's swirling surface, reports CNN.

From the perspective of people theoretically standing on Jupiter, it would be like three solar eclipses happening at once, astronomers said.

A PHOTO GIFT

In the last 15 years, this has happened only twice, the Space Telescope Science Institute said. "The next one will be 2032," CNN quoted astronomer Carol Christian.

So, Hubble shot photos to capture the rare conjunction in late January. The NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team published them along with a short fast-motion video animation, on Thursday.

There was no great scientific gain in Hubble taking the snaps. The moons and their crossings have been examined plenty and are well-known.

"We felt that there are images which have aesthetic value above and beyond their scientific value," said astronomer Zolt Levy.

It was a gift of beauty to the public.

62 MOONS, 4 BIG ONES

Jupiter is a sort of mini-solar system inside our solar system.

It is the largest body after the sun. And like the sun, it comprises of a lot of helium and hydrogen gas, but it doesn't have enough mass to burst into the intense nuclear fusion that makes the sun a fireball, CNN quotes Nasa.

It has many satellites, including 62 moons, and they swarm around the planet with many of them crossing the surface facing Earth constantly.

But only four of them are highly visible standouts. They are Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.