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At noon on Monday (12/21) at 12:02 Greek time, the Sun will be on the winter solstice, so this winter will generally begin in Greece and the northern hemisphere in general, an event that Google honors. today. of doodle.
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It is noteworthy that this year the winter solstice will coincide for the first time with a terribly rare “marriage” of the planetary giants Jupiter and Saturn in Earth’s sky, and with the culmination of the last rain of the year, the Arctic.
The night of the solstice, the first of winter, as well as the next ones, will be the longest of the year in duration. By contrast, summer will begin in the southern hemisphere, with the day at its peak.
As the Sun passes the winter solstice, it begins to rise higher and higher in the sky again, with the result that the day regains its lost “ground”, until at the spring equinox light and darkness once again have a almost equal duration.
The winter solstice does not always “fall” on the same date, but instead oscillates between December 20 and 23, with the most likely dates being 21 and 22. These calendar fluctuations are due to the Gregorian calendar.
The winter solstice, according to the APE-MPE, no longer occurs on December 25, as in the time of Christ, but a little earlier, because it has replaced the old Julian Calendar, which was introduced by Julius Caesar in 44 BC. and that he had set the winter solstice on December 25, but missed one day every 128 years. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII introduced a new calendar, named after him (Gregorian), which loses only one day in its 4,000 years.
The Sun was worshiped by the ancients as a god and almost all ancient peoples established various festivals in his honor, from the Scandinavians and Iranians to the Mayans and the Incas. Almost everywhere, the most important celebrations took place during the winter solstice, which was considered the celebration of the birth of the Sun, which also marked the beginning of the new year. Prehistoric monuments like Stonehenge in Britain are believed to have been associated with recording the movements of the Sun in the sky.
For the Romans the celebration of the “invincible Sun” on December 25 was fundamental, when it was celebrated that the Sun began to rise in the sky again and that is how the days grew. The first Christians of Rome, who secretly went to its catacombs, decided to celebrate the birth of Christ on the same date, December 25, when the Romans celebrated their own festivals of Saturnalia.
Rare heavenly “union”
Today, the large planets Jupiter and Saturn will be so close to each other that they almost appear to be touched and “kissed,” resembling a double planet, according to NASA.
This spectacular astronomical phenomenon, also called “Great Coupling”, is the first time it has occurred in Earth’s night sky in centuries. In fact, Saturn will be at least 730 million kilometers behind Jupiter, which will be 890 million kilometers from Earth.
According to Sky & Telescope, Saturn will be seen with binoculars or the naked eye to the right of the brightest Jupiter, while four large satellites of Jupiter and at least one of Saturn, a total of seven celestial bodies, will also be visible with an amateur telescope, in a southwesterly direction.
The approaches of the two planets, as seen from our planet, are relatively rare, since they occur approximately every 20 years. But this year’s coupling is special, because Jupiter and Saturn will appear to be so close. By one estimate, the last time people could see something like this was in 1623, when Galileo was still alive, while the last time was in 1226 in the middle of the Middle Ages.
The rare “dating” magazines of the two large gaseous planets are due to their orbits not matching. Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, takes almost 12 Earth years to complete a complete orbit around the Sun, while Saturn takes almost 30. In addition, the two giants move in orbits with different inclinations around our parent star, which it also makes it more difficult to match them.
The two planets have been closing in on Earth’s sky since this summer, and on December 21 they will be separated by only one-fifth the diameter of the Moon. For about five days before and after December 21, the two planets will appear to be as far apart as the diameter of the Moon. Those who prefer to wait will see the close pair of Jupiter and Saturn again in March 2080, while this will not happen again until 2400.
And “rain” from the Arctic
At the same time, on the night of December 21, the Arctic’s relatively light shower of rising stars will peak, the last “shooting stars” of the year. The Arctic, which occurs between December 17 and 25 and produces five to ten meteors per hour, comes from the dust left by Comet Tuttle, first discovered in 1790.
The conquerors seem to come from the direction of the constellation Ursa Minor, hence their name. The sky will be dark enough to observe, as the next full moon will occur on December 30.
Related video for pairing:
The matchmaking can also be seen live on December 21 here:
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