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Jupiter and Saturn merge to form poinsettia
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For decades, Saturn and Jupiter will not be as close as they were on December 21, 2020
Source: AP / Bill Ingalls
The shortest day of the year awaits with a spectacular celestial phenomenon: a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, which together could have formed the star of Bethlehem. This merger will not take place again until 2080 at the earliest.
mer showed Gaspar, Melchior and Baltasar the way to Jesus. According to the Bible, the three wise men found the child’s manger through the Star of Bethlehem. It is not clear if this celestial phenomenon existed or if it is just a symbolism. A comet, a starburst that can be seen on Earth, or a special constellation of planets – the latter is at least a more likely possibility and can be seen just in time for Christmas this year.
In the evening sky of December 21, the shortest day of the year, the two largest planets in our solar system, Jupiter and Saturn, merge before our eyes.
In this so-called conjunction, the two planets of the Friends of the Stars Association are particularly close when viewed from Earth. The reason: they both travel around the sun at different speeds. The faster Jupiter then overtakes the more distant Saturn. “This year’s overtaking maneuver is something special. The two planets will almost merge into a common point of light, ”says Sternfreunde president Sven Melchert.
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Overtaking occurs every 20 years. But an equally close clash will only occur again in 2080. And you can’t always see the show. Twenty years ago, the giants were not visible in the night sky during the conjunction. And in 2080, the closest convergence won’t occur until dawn. “The conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on December 21, 2020 is the best the universe has to offer us in a long time,” emphasizes Melchert.
Saturn’s ring system can be seen at 30x magnification
The two planets are currently in the southwestern sky at night. You do not need a telescope to make an observation. The bright Jupiter will then be positioned to the left below the ring planet Saturn, and with the naked eye one will no longer be able to separate the two. With binoculars one can see not only Jupiter but also some of its four great moons. Saturn’s ring system can also be seen at a magnification of at least 30 times.
However, the weather on the night of December 21 will frustrate the sight of the rare spectacle in much of Germany. “It doesn’t look so good,” says a spokesman for the German Weather Service. The cloud cover will thicken in the western half. Fog and clouds made it difficult to see the evening sky. Regionally, however, there are opportunities in the east and southeast. Even on December 22, when the two planets are still together, the weather is not working. “You need a lot of luck there.”
There was a similar encounter between the two planets at the change of the ages. “But that’s just one of the possibilities,” Carolin Liefke of the House of Astronomy in Heidelberg said of speculations about the Star of Bethlehem. Jupiter and Venus would also have had a similar constellation. Although the star has often been shown with a tail since the Middle Ages, it is highly likely that a comet can be excluded. It was considered to be a bad luck charm, and that certainly would not have been written. A supernova, an explosion of stars, is also unlikely. Remains should have been found there. “The Gospels were written much later.”
