This month, the night sky presented us with an impressive spectacle: the near perfect alignment of four planets, Jupiter, Venus, Mars and Saturn. But the grand finale will take place very early on April 30, 2022, giving the illusion that Jupiter and Venus are colliding. ScienceAlert has deciphered the phenomenon to allow us to appreciate the show properly.
According to NASAthe two planets will approach so close that they will give the impression, to the eye naked, to merge into a single large luminous mass. On the other hand, the lucky ones who own a telescope will be able to distinguish the two. At the height of the phenomenon, they will be 0.2 degrees apart, slightly less than the angular distance of a full moon. If you are afraid of missing the collision on the 30th, don’t panic, it will be visible again at dawn on the 1st.is May, but the position of the two planets will be reversed.
Optical illusion
As you can imagine, Jupiter and Venus will not be so close, but their orbits, seen from Earth, will seem aligned. In reality, they will be separated by 690 million kilometers, more than four times the Earth-Sun distance. Earlier this month, another conjunction of the same type took place between Mars and Saturn. But the most impressive is the “Great Conjunction” which took place between Jupiter and Saturn at the end of 2020.
To make sure you don’t miss anything, here are some tips: get up before dawn, so you can scan the sky around 5:30 a.m. For the direction, it is towards the east that it happens. Unfortunately, as the event coincides with a new Moon, it will not be very visible due to the night light.
Another meeting is also expected this weekend: a partial solar eclipse. This is what happens when the Moon passes between us and the Sun. It will make it possible to see a maximum of 64% of the solar disc obscured. Unfortunately, it will not be visible from all points of the globe, and you will only be able to directly enjoy it if you live in certain parts of Antarctica and South America. Live broadcasts will still take place, such as on the Indian YouTube channel of gyaan ki gareebi.
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Finally, another alignment will be visible on June 24, and this one will be of an even larger scale since it will concern Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus – you will nevertheless need a telescope to see both. latest. These alignments are rare and have only happened three times since 2005: do not miss the boat.
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