You may have noticed the past few evenings: next to the moon, two bright orbs can be seen. Those are not stars, but Jupiter and Venus. Wednesday evening, the two planets appear to be nearly touching each other.
Seen from Earth. The real distance between Jupiter and Venus is about 700 million kilometers.
In the coming days, the planets will creep closer and closer together. We call this a conjunction. The peak of that conjunction is Wednesday around 8 p.m. The following days, the planets move away from each other again.
The weather is expected to be good enough on Wednesday to see the ‘encounter’ between Jupiter and Venus. It will also be clear in many places on Monday and Tuesday evening. If you want to see the conjunction, you have to look west. You get the best picture just after sunset.
It is common for planets from our solar system to line up as seen from Earth. There are also conjunctions with three, four or even five planets. There are even times when all the other planets can be seen together in the sky.
In 2039, Jupiter and Venus will be side by side again.
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