Saturn and Jupiter will appear to be very close to each other | Photo credit: iStock Images
Key points
- Astrologers and astronomers are looking forward to today’s Great Conjunction
- Astronomers observe the physical and astronomical part of the alignment of two planets, once every 20 years, which catch up.
- Astrologers and historians are checking what major world events happened around this time 400 years ago when a similar Great Conjunction took place.
The world is in awe of the celestial event unfolding on December 21, 2020 tonight in the form of the Great Conjunction.
Tonight, when Earth marks the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and today is the shortest day and longest night of the year, an amazing celestial event called The Great Conjunction occurs.
The Great Conjunction occurs when Jupiter and Saturn overlap in the night sky. The Great Conjunction Jupiter Saturn is known as the ‘Christmas Star of 2020’. Google has even created a special animated Google Doodle to celebrate the occasion.
The great conjunction: About 400 years ago:
In 1610, the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei used a telescope for the night sky, discovering the four moons of Jupiter: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. In that same year, Galileo also discovered a strange oval surrounding Saturn, which later observations determined to be its rings. These discoveries changed the way people understood the confines of our solar system.
Thirteen years later, which was the last time these two planets appeared so close, on July 16, 1623, they were separated by only 5 arc minutes. That is actually 397 years ago.
The two planets traveled the sky together in their routine orbit. Slow Saturn takes about 30 years to go around the Sun. Faster Jupiter (about 12 years to go around the Sun) caught up with and passed Saturn, in an astronomical event known as the “Great Conjunction.” Lined up in a line, from Earth they appear to merge or in conjunction.
Period of rotation of the planet Period of revolution
land 0.99 days 365.26 days
Mars 1.03 days 1.88 years
Jupiter 0.41 days 11.86 years
Saturn 0.45 days 29.46 years
Table source: exploratorium.edu/
Important events that took place before and after the Great Conjunction of 1623:
Here is an interesting note on the historical events of this time according to the Latin Library’s Chronicles of India:
1627-80: Life of Shivaji, brave general and tolerant founder of the Maratha Hindu Empire (1674-1818). Emancipates large areas confiscated by Muslims, returning them to Hindu control. First Indian ruler to build a major naval force.
1630: Over the next two years, millions starve when Shah Jahan (1592-1666), fifth Mughal emperor, empties the royal treasury to buy jewels for his “Peacock Throne”.
1647: Shah Jahan completes the Taj Mahal in Agra along the Yamuna River. Its construction has employed 20,000 workers for 15 years, at a total cost equivalent to US $ 25 million.
Black death (plague):
In the Mediterranean region, famines in the 1590s and the plague in 1599, 1629-1631 and 1647-1650 joined other factors to reduce the population of Italy between 1600 and 1650 by about 16%, and the of Spain by 14%. cent (concentrated in Castilla).
In Central Europe, the Thirty Years’ War (1618 to 1648) created a disorder that intensified all kinds of danger to life. Recent estimates show that the lands of the Holy Roman Empire suffer a population decline of 35 to 40 percent.
India:
The English ventured to India via a mission that was entrusted to the East India Company (English), which received its trade monopoly rights in 1600. They were reported to beat the Dutch in the spice trade which was more focused on Indonesia. But the world knows how these merchants from England brought arms, cheated and seized power to finally colonize India, for the benefit of the imperial crown of England.
