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Saturn and Jupiter will almost seem to kiss this winter solstice, though not because of any mistletoe hanging overhead.
Rather, the two gas giants will appear very close in the night sky in an event known as a “grand conjunction,” which occurs approximately every 20 years. In reality, Saturn and Jupiter will be hundreds of millions of miles apart.
This year’s great conjunction will be exceptionally close – just one-tenth of a degree or one-fifth the diameter of a full moon. The last time Saturn and Jupiter looked so welcoming was on July 16, 1623, when the famous Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei he was alive, according to Space.com, a sister site to Live Science.
Related: Cassini’s greatest hits: the best photos of Saturn and its moons
Stargazers following Jupiter and Saturn since this summer will have noticed that the planets are slowly approaching each other. As the largest planet in the solar system, Jupiter is usually one of the brightest planets, but lately it has been shining even brighter, due to the nearby presence of Saturn to its left (east), Space.com reported.
The last major conjunction occurred on May 28, 2000. The two planets seem to meet very infrequently because their orbits do not coincide. It takes Jupiter almost 12 Earth years to circle the sun and Saturn almost 30. On top of that, these gaseous planets travel in differently inclined “tracks” around the sun, so they rarely appear so close to each other (at less from Earth’s perspective) during large conjunctions, Michael Brown, an astronomer at Monash University in Australia, told The Washington Post.
Before the very close grand conjunction of 1623, which was probably impossible to see from Earth because the planets appeared so close to the sun, the last visible and seemingly intimate encounter between Jupiter and Saturn occurred in March 1226, Brown told the Post.
Sky watchers waiting to see the cosmic “encounter” Winter Solstice – the “shortest day” of the year in the northern hemisphere – you should look just above the horizon in the southwest, about an hour after sunset, according to NASA. You should see the planets kissing with the naked eye, and if you have a telescope or binoculars, the planets will appear in the same field of view. “In fact, Saturn will appear as close to Jupiter as some of Jupiter’s moons.” NASA wrote in a statement..
The next major conjunctions will appear on November 2, 2040 and April 7, 2060, but during both events, the planets will appear 1.1 degrees apart, or 11 times farther than this month’s view. according to timeanddate.com. To see the next big super close conjunction, sky watchers (or perhaps their children or grandchildren) will have to wait until March 15, 2080.
Originally posted on Live Science.
