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Giotto, “Adoration of the Magi”, 1303-1305. Padua, Chapel of the Scrovegni – –
The early winter sky of this stormy 2020 offers a sight not to be missed. Towards the afternoon of today, December 21, the day of the winter solstice, Jupiter and Saturn, the two largest planets in the solar system, by a perspective effect will appear very close, very low on the horizon, to the point of appearing almost as a single object. When two celestial bodies appear together we speak of a ‘conjunction’, a configuration that is actually so frequent that the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction, for example, occurs approximately every twenty years. However, not all conjunctions are the same. In today’s case, in fact, the conjunction is ‘very close’ (we also speak of ‘great conjunction’) because the two planets appear separated by only a fifth of the apparent diameter of the full Moon. Since last July, Jupiter and Saturn appeared quite close in Sagittarius and night after night their approach has been getting closer and closer until reaching the minimum tonight in Capricorn. Just look to the southwest after sunset and for a couple of hours it will be impossible not to notice them because they will be the brightest objects in the night sky. Obviously, it is expected that the phenomenon will not be disturbed by clouds and fogs because such an event will only occur in sixty years, on March 15, 2080.
Conjunctions similar to that of this afternoon occurred in 1623, the year Galileo published his ‘Saggiatore’ and in 1228 and, even further back, another very important one was recorded and about which we will speak shortly. But first it is good to make some considerations. The observation of two luminous points in the sky probably does not induce great emotions in people who often dismiss the phenomenon with a hasty “is that all?” But that “everything here?” It really has important meanings. Meanwhile, it must be said that this ‘conjunction’ is not an unexpected but an expected event and this means that our universe is governed by very specific laws that allow us to make predictions. And then we think it is good to remember that at the time of the observation Jupiter, the brightest, is at a distance from Earth of 886 million km while Saturn is 1,620 billion km. And if the two planets appear close together, their actual distance is 733 million kilometers. But apart from this phenomenon there is another very interesting aspect that recalls the conjunction that we mentioned earlier. In these days prior to the end of the year celebrations, the characteristic ‘stars with a tail’ have entered the scene among the Christmas lights because according to a deep-rooted tradition it would have been a ‘comet’ to guide the Magi to the hut of Bethlehem.
The star presepe: from the star of Bethlehem to the planetary conjunction of 2020 – Alessia Scarso (www.alessiascarso.it)
Since ‘comet stars’ do not exist (‘stars’, in fact, are very big and hot bodies while ‘comets’ are small and cold and therefore the expression ‘comet’ is a hybrid devoid of any astronomical meaning ) of Astronomers have always tried to give a scientific explanation to the phenomenon that illuminated the first Christmas in history. As is known, our calendar is flawed by an error made by Dionysus the Little, a monk who lived between the 5th and 6th centuries, and taking this error into account, the birth of Jesus must be between 7 and 4 BC and only in in 7 BC there was a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. The phenomenon is mentioned by Kepler in his treatise Of Jesus Christ our savior, and the year in the year, yet (1606) but even earlier it had been reported in a 1285 Anglican Church document and announced in some Babylonian tablets (the Alma- nacco di Sippar) of the first millennium BC as an event of great importance. In addition, the conjunction was ‘triple’ because in the course of the year it occurred three times (in May, September and December) in the constellation Pisces, a circumstance that lent itself to an astrological reading since the fish is also the symbol. of Christ.
However, it was not as “narrow” as tonight because the two planets reached the minimum distance of one degree, that is, twice the apparent diameter of the Moon. The event, therefore, was not very spectacular but it did not escape the observation of the magicians who were attentive scrutinizers of the sky. Karl Gustav Jung was also interested in the phenomenon and dedicated the essay to the event The sign of Pisces. Bartolomeo Garzoni, brother of the famous Tommaso polygraph, and even Agatha Christie also wrote works dedicated to the phenomenon. Finally, it should be remembered that the conjunction will not disappear the next day but can also be observed in the following days. Needless to say, the conjunction will get bigger and bigger. Therefore, if time permits, those fortunate enough to observe the conjunction tonight will see in the sky a facsimile of the phenomenon that could have illuminated Christmas two thousand years ago. Added value of a phenomenon that will make this Christmas atmosphere special
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