On a winter solstice night, a rare cosmic event known as a planetary conjunction occurred as the two largest planets in our solar system passed through each other.
During the conjunction, also known as the “Christmas Star”, Jupiter and Saturn merged for a few short moments and appeared to shine as a bright double planet, when in fact both planets were more than plane00 million miles apart.
Stargazers, astronomers and photographers compared their best cameras and telescopes to document the spectacular event. Deseret News has captured several photos of the western desert of Utah that can be viewed in this gallery.
Here are some other images (via ScienceAlert.com):
Ed PiotroskiPosted by ABC-15WPDE Chief Meteorologist at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina This image of the planets On her Twitter account:
This NASA Earth’s official Twitter Account Post a Gorgeous image Google’s cartoon of the planets reflected in the main body of water – as well as Saturn and Jupiter high alive:
Tom Kieran, An author and retired meteorologist, post This beautiful image Jupiter, Saturn and Jupiter’s four largest moons on his Twitter account. According to Kearin, the photo was taken by Sajal Chakraborty in Melbourne, Australia:
Great connection. Jupiter and it are the 4 largest moons (550 million miles away) and Saturn (1 billion miles away). Tablescope Image by Sajal Chakraborty from Melbourne, Australia Australia pic.twitter.com/q5971CTD4A
– Tom Kearin (TomKearin) December 22, 2020
Matt Navy, an Utah-based photojournalist, reflects this image of their engagement on the Great Salt Lake on his Instagram account:
Jim Tang, a two-area landscape photographer, captured this incredible image of an ining glowing conjunction above the San Francisco cityscape and shared it on Instagram:
