To end our chaotic year of 2020, from now until 25th December, it may look like a very bright star in the sky but in fact, it will be the conjunction of the planets Saturn and Jupiter.
Since the summer, the two planets have been approaching one another more closely than in many generations. From Dec. 16th – 25th, the two will be separated by less than the diameter of a Full Moon. The last time this happened, Galileo was alive.
Professor of Physics & Astronomy at Rice University, Houston, Texas, Patrick Hartigan said in a press release: “You’d have to go all the way back to just before dawn on March 4, 1226, to see a closer alignment between these objects visible in the night sky.”
In reality, the planets risk no collision and it is the perspective from here on Earth that they appear so close together.
They now appear low in the Western sky for about an hour after sunset each evening. The further North you are, the less time you will have to catch them before they fall below the horizon.
It is estimated that the planets will not be this close again until March 15, 2080, and after that, the next time will be in the year 2400.
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