Mars and Jupiter are warming up the night sky for their biggest encounter of the decade on Wednesday.
Although the planets would be more than 350 million miles apart in their orbits, from our perspective they would appear extremely close to each other with only a small gap between them.
According to an AP report, the Red Planet and the largest planet will be at their closest distance from each other, about a third of a degree, or a third of the width of the Moon.
They will be visible during daylight hours in most parts of the Americas, Europe and Africa, but they will not be otherwise visible the day before or a few hours before, when the sky is dark, according to Jon Giorgini of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
The planets are best seen before sunrise in the eastern sky in the constellation Taurus. Such an astronomical event, a planetary conjunction, only occurs about once every three years.
“Such events are above all an object of curiosity and beauty for those who observe the sky and wonder what the two bright objects so close together could be,” Giorgini said in an email to AP. “The science is in being able to accurately predict the events years in advance.”
The orbits of the two celestial bodies have not crossed so closely since 2018. This event will not happen again until 2033, when they will come even closer.
According to Giorgini, the closest Mars and Jupiter have been to each other in the last 1,000 years was in 1761, when they were visible to the naked eye as one bright star. In the future, they will come almost as close in the year 2348.
This exciting conjunction of Mars and Jupiter occurs at the same time as the Perseid meteor shower. This is one of the brightest showers of the year and is visible to the naked eye.
(With contributions from agencies)
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