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Jupiter and Saturn are seen together in the night sky, above the sails of the Brill windmill, for … [+]
fake images
Have you seen the “Christmas Star” yet? On Monday, December 21, 2020, Jupiter and Saturn reached their closest point conjunction from the 17th century, but the easiest to see since the 13th century.
You can still see the two tangled planets, but here is the peak event in the photos from the last few days, when Jupiter and Saturn appeared to be only 0.1º from each other.
On Monday, December 21, Jupiter and Saturn appeared to form a rare “double planet” seen in the line of sight from Earth, although the two planets actually aligned with each other and the Sun (their heliocentric conjunction) on November 2. , 2020.
They only Look nearby: Jupiter is 550 million miles / 890 million kilometers from Earth, while Saturn, behind Jupiter, is 450 million miles / 730 million kilometers away.
The “Great Conjunction” or “Christmas Star” as Jupiter (bottom) and Saturn (top) line up, taken from … [+]
Jamie carter
This so-called “grand conjunction” of Jupiter and Saturn occurs every 19.85 years. That’s because it takes Jupiter 11.86 years to orbit the Sun and Saturn 29.4 years, so they must sometimes appear to intersect in our night sky from Earth’s point of view. However, the event occurs in the same part of the sky only every 800 years or so.
A statue atop a half-scale replica of Seville, Spain’s Giralda is in the foreground as … [+]
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Monday’s event was the closest “grand conjunction” since July 16, 1623, and the first to be easily observable since March 4, 1226.
The two worlds now won’t seem to meet again until 2040, although that year’s conjunction will be further apart. A conjunction is an apparent passage of two or more celestial bodies, but a “grand conjunction” refers only to Jupiter and Saturn.
The fact that Jupiter and Saturn appeared closer to each other than they have been for centuries on the exact date of the solstice, and only four days before Christmas, sparked theories as to whether the rare close alignment could be called a “Christmas star.” “.
Saturn and Jupiter stand behind a church before their conjunction, as photographed on December 18, … [+]
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According to the Gospel of Matthew, a bright star rose after the birth of Jesus Christ that the Magi followed to find it.
The astronomer Johannes Kepler, after seeing a “great conjunction” in 1603, theorized that the “Star of Bethlehem”, if it ever existed, could have been a “triple great conjunction” of Jupiter and Saturn.
Saturn, above and Jupiter, below, are seen after sunset from Shenandoah National Park on Sunday in December. … [+]
NASA / Bill Ingalls
He calculated that in 7 BC, the changing perspective of Earth as it orbited the Sun meant that the two planets would have gotten much closer than three times in the same year. That didn’t happen this year and it won’t happen again until 2239.
A few days before the peak of the “great conjunction,” a crescent Moon passed Jupiter and Saturn, as seen below. For the next five days until Christmas Day, the two planets will appear within a Moon diameter of each other.
A crescent moon (L) is seen with Saturn (top right) and Jupiter (bottom right) in front of its … [+]
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The two planets were in conjunction just 30 degrees east of the Sun, with the “Christmas Star” planets low on the horizon.
They were seen more easily, and still are, approximately 45 minutes after sunset where you are. Look to the southwest.
Those with binoculars and / or telescopes can see not only the two planets in close conjunction, but also their main moons. The image below shows Saturn at the top with Jupiter at the bottom along with its four so-called “Galilean moons”: Callisto, Ganymede, Europa, and Io.
Jupiter, with its moons, and Saturn (above) are seen very close to each other in December … [+]
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Although it is called the “great conjunction” and the “Christmas Star”, this celestial event is more accurately called a “pulse”. An appulse is defined as the minimum apparent distance between one celestial object and another, seen from a third body.
So what is actually happening in the Solar System during the “great conjunction”? “You can imagine the Solar System as a racetrack, with each of the planets as a corridor in its own lane and the Earth toward the center of the stadium,” said Henry Throop, an astronomer with the Division of Planetary Sciences at HQ NASA in Washington. . “From our point of view, we can see Jupiter in the inner lane, closing in on Saturn all month and finally overtaking it on December 21.”
The “great conjunction” of Jupiter (bottom) and Saturn (top) taken from Cardiff, Wales, UK on … [+]
Jamie carter
The timing of the event on the exact date of the solstice is simply a coincidence; the conjunction descends to the orbits of the planets, while the solstice is connected to the tilt of the Earth and its own orbit around the Sun. “Conjunctions like this could occur on any day of the year, depending on where the planets are in their orbits, ”Throop said. “The date of the conjunction is determined by the positions of Jupiter, Saturn and the Earth in their trajectories around the Sun, while the date of the solstice is determined by the inclination of the axis of the Earth.”
“The solstice is the longest night of the year, so this rare coincidence will give people a great opportunity to go out and see the Solar System.”
A statue of a Kansa Indian atop the Kansas Statehouse is in the foreground as Saturn, above and … [+]
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In 1623 for the last “great conjunction” so close, the telescope was only 13 years old. In 1610, the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei had pointed his telescope at the night sky to discover the four moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn.
If you still want to grasp the “great conjunction”, then it is not too late. Here’s a sky chart courtesy of Sky and telescope magazine that shows you exactly where to look.
This illustration shows the view to the southwest at dusk on December 21.
Sky and Telescope / Gregg Dinderman
The two planets will appear super close for the rest of December before sinking into the sun’s glow in mid-January.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
