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Sky observation enthusiasts were able to observe with the naked eye Monday the closest “approach” of Jupiter and Saturn in the last 400 years. As usual, the trend is not just to observe, capturing moments with photographs that end up standing out on the Internet.
The alignment between Jupiter and Saturn, which gives the illusion of approximation, occurs every 20 years, but only every 400 years are they a very short “distance” from each other. This phenomenon has been occurring in recent days and yesterday, starting at 7:38 pm, the pinnacle of this approach could be observed.
Before that, SAPO TeK had already collected some photos shared by the Space Weather community that showed this approach. Now more images of the phenomenon appear, accompanied by Internet users from all corners of the world, including Portugal, both through smartphones, cameras and telescopes.
We have compiled some of the images of the observation of the phenomenon in this gallery.
NASA has yet to share “stunning” photos of the phenomenon, but has released more images of the “Christmas Star” on Twitter.
The animated videos also show the “closeness” between Jupiter and Saturn.
On December 21, Jupiter and Saturn “will see each other so close that a little finger at arm’s length will be enough to cover the two planets in the sky,” NASA said even before the peak of the phenomenon.
In Portugal, and according to the Lisbon Astronomical Observatory, the two planets could be observed in their entirety on December 21, at 7:38 p.m., at a maximum height of 32º in the case of Saturn and 31º for Jupiter, with magnitudes of +0, 6, and -2.0, respectively.
Despite the optical illusion of their approach, the planets are, in fact, hundreds of millions of kilometers apart. NASA also said that despite the close approximation that takes place on the same day as the winter solstice, it is just a coincidence, based on the orbit of the planets and alignment with Earth.
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