Saturn captured here by the Hubble Space Telescope during the summer will join Jupiter on December 21st.
NASA, ESA, a. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), MH Wong (University of California, Berkeley), and the OPL team
Skywatchers, get ready for a rare and spectacular sight on Monday. In an event known as a great combination, Jupiter and Saturn, the two largest planets in our solar system, will appear very close to each other. Nearby, in fact, they have been doing since the Middle Ages.
The event is so well-known that some people associate it with the famous Bethlehem star who guided three wise men in the Bible’s birth story. (For more on those corners, read below.)
In astronomy, a connection occurs when any two astronomical objects (asteroids, moons, planets, stars) appear close to each other when observed from Earth. A great connection especially includes Jupiter and Saturn. This only happens every 19.6 years, so this event is already rare, but the event of December 21, the year 1226 will be the closest observable connection of the two. (They also came close to this in 1623, but probably didn’t happen. Seen from Earth.) And don’t miss it – you won’t get another chance.
Preston Deutsch, author and creator of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said, “This is the ‘great’ connection between Jupiter and Saturn for the next 60 years. Both planets will not appear in the sky so close.
The December 21 event should be easy to see, says Jeffrey Hunt, an astronomy educator and former Planetarium director, who wrote about the event on his website while Curves lined up.
“Exit after sunset to find the southern sky (planets),” he advises. “A telescope is auxiliary; Jupiter protrudes and appears unparalleled as Saturn passes. On a combined evening, the planets sit close to the eyepiece of a spotting telescope or small telescope at low power.”
Saturn’s rings and Jupiter’s four brightest and largest moons will also be visible with the help of binoculars or telescopes.
Don’t miss this magnificent sight in the western sky after sunset!
In 20-years their Jupiter and Saturn are getting closer and closer # In connection Jupiter is bright on December 21, 12 times higher than Saturn, yet Saturn will shine as brightly as a 1st-dimensional star. 🌟 pic.twitter.com/ATYspyzXSR
– EarthSky December 5, 2020
Those who want to photograph the moment can do so so easily. Hunt says a tripod-mounted camera with exposure of up to 10 seconds can capture my planets and background stars. The event should be visible from anywhere on earth that gives a clear sky.
The combination is sometimes referred to as the Christmas star. Some claim that the meeting of the same planets created the legendary star of Bethlehem who led the biblical quest, also known as the Three Wise Men, towards Christ the Child. The German astronomer Johannes Kepler also traced the idea back to the 17th century.
But when you dig into the facts, it doesn’t quite match.
Hunt says, “Everyone is looking for a strange angle.” The problem with the Star of Bethlehem connection is the actual year of birth, and the season (or) month. And there are other planetary alignments that could explain the star of Bethlehem. The subject was completely defeated by the planetarium community. In the 1980s. “
Hunt says don’t search for any scientific movie type merger of Jupiter and Saturn. This is not an eclipse.
“The planets will not merge into a single point of light, as they are reported in some media,” he says. In other words, Jupiter will not pass directly in front of Saturn, cutting it out of sight.
There is really no need to decorate the sight, because it is beautiful on its own.
Hunt notes that while this particular event is particularly close, understand that the great connection is a pay-off event, not a once-in-a-lifetime event.
“A great connection occurs three or four times during a human lifetime and it marks a period of five generations,” he says. “I encourage families to look out for their children, tell children that the planets will be close to each other again in 20 years, and ask how old they will be then.”
However, as the planets come together over time, December 21 will mark the actual union – the night when the two planets are closest, and Jupiter is passing Saturn very slowly. December 21, of course, the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and the summer solstice in the Southern Hemisphere.
If you’re engaged on December 21st, you might be surprised to look forward to Christmas Eve. By December 24 the planets will be instinctively close.
In the end, 2020 is giving us something positive to look forward to.
