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Saturn and Jupiter will appear to almost kiss this wintertime solstice , although not because of some cosmicmistletoehanging overhead .
Rather , the two gas giants will look as though they ’re very close in the night sky in an case known as a " great conjunction , " which happens just about every 20 years . In realism , Saturn and Jupiter will be hundreds of millions of naut mi apart from each other .
On Dec. 21, sky gazers looking just above the horizon will see Saturn and Jupiter appearing very close to one another.
This class ’s great conjugation will be exceptionally close — just a tenth of a degree aside , or one - fifth part of a full Sun Myung Moon ’s diameter . The last fourth dimension Saturn and Jupiter looked this cozy was July 16 , 1623 , back when the famous Italian astronomerGalileo Galileiwas alive , harmonise to Space.com , a Live Science sister site .
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Stargazers tracking Jupiter and Saturn since this summer will have noticed the planets tardily sashay up to each other . As thesolar system ’s largest satellite , Jupiter is ordinarily one of the brightest planets , but lately it ’s been radiate even more brightly , because of Saturn ’s close presence to its left ( the east ) , Space.com reported .
In this close-up illustration, Jupiter and Saturn appear quite cozy when seen with binoculars.
The last great conjunction happened on May 28 , 2000 . The two planet look to rendezvous so infrequently because their orbit are mismatch . Jupiter takes nigh 12 Earth eld to circle the sunlight , and Saturn takes intimately 30 . On top of that , these gaseous major planet travel on differently tilted " tracks " around the sun , so they rarely come along this close to one another ( at least from Earth ’s view ) during great conjunctions , Michael Brown , an uranologist at Monash University in Australia , told The Washington Post .
Before the very nigh 1623 great conjunction , which was probably impossible to see from Earth because the planets appeared so close to the sun , the last visible and seemingly intimate encounter between Jupiter and Saturn befall in March 1226 , Brown tell the Post .
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Sky - gazers hoping to see the cosmic " meeting " thiswinter solstice — the " shortest day " of the year in the Northern Hemisphere — should look just above the visible horizon in the southwest , about an hour after sunset , harmonise toNASA . You should see the kissing satellite with the naked eye , and if you have a telescope or field glasses , the planets will come out in the same area of view . " In fact , Saturn will appear as closemouthed to Jupiter as some of Jupiter ’s moons,“NASA publish in a statement .
The next great conjunctions will seem on Nov. 2 , 2040 , and April 7 , 2060 , but during both of those event , the planet will look 1.1 degrees apart , or 11 time farther than this month ’s view , according to timeanddate.com . To see the next topnotch - close great conjunction , sky watchman ( or possibly their fry or grandchildren ) will have to waitress until March 15 , 2080 .
earlier publish on Live Science .
