Rare celestial conjunction! Venus, Jupiter on course to come closest

Bhubaneswar: Jupiter and Venus are on a course to come closest to each other making it an exciting and rare occurrence in the sky.

The rare celestial conjunction that began over the last couple of weeks will last till March 1.

“Jupiter and Venus will be at their closest approach point on March 1 evening. They will appear clearly distinct but very close together,” informed Bhubaneswar-based Pathani Samanta Planetarium.

Both Venus and Jupiter are now visible to the naked eye in the evening sky just after sunset. On March 1 (Wednesday), Venus and Jupiter will to embrace in the sky. With a pair of binoculars, skygazers may be able to see three or four larger Moons of Jupiter. And with help of a telescope, they will be able to spot tops of Jupiter’s clouds.

At present, Jupiter appears just above Venus. However, the position will be reverse i.e. Venus will be visible clearly over Jupiter.

On Monday evening, the distance between two planets was 5 degree. Today, the distance will come shorter to 2.5 degree and later it will be 0.5 degree. After Wednesday, they are going to begin to separate again.

Everyday after sunset, the Venus and Jupiter are emerging from the twilight. In fact, Venus and Jupiter are not close together in space. They are over 50 crore km apart. But, they will be clearly visible from Earth everywhere, said the Planetarium’s Deputy Director Subhendu Pattnaik.

Despite far distance in the space, their alignment in the sky gives impression to people on Earth as if they are nudging or kissing.

 

 

 

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