Pisa Planets

The two brightest planets of night sky, Venus and Jupiter, pair together, below the Moon, in this morning sky view from Pisa, Italy. The Leaning Tower of Pisa, visible in the background center of this view, is a freestanding bell tower of the Pisa Cathedral (left). Although intended to stand vertically, the 56 meter tower began leaning soon after the onset of construction in 1173. Galileo Galilei is said to have dropped two cannon balls of different masses from the tower to demonstrate that their speed of descent was independent of their mass.