Two planets will appear to “almost collide” in the night sky this week
Saturday early risers will be treated to a planetary “conjunction” in the morning sky. According to NASA, the mixing of Jupiter and Venus, which will only last two days, will make the planets appear to be “almost colliding”. The two celestial bodies are among the brightest objects currently in the night sky.
While those with telescopes should easily be able to tell the two planets apart, it’s possible that some naked-eye observers will witness a combined radiant overlap between the two.
The conjunction will continue in the early morning of May 1, but as the planets point in separate directions in the night sky, the duo will have swapped positions.
Along with Venus and Jupiter, a trio of other planets will grace the sky, though they’re likely only visible to skywatchers and astronomers with telescopes. In more rural areas, two of the other planets – Mars and Saturn – have already drawn a perfect line as the solar system remains spread out in glorious splendor. They will continue to do so in the days to come.
A “conjunction” occurs when two planets appear, from Earth’s perspective, to brush against each other in the sky. Although there is no specific measurement of how close they should be, the commonly accepted definition is within a few degrees. The conjunctions of Venus and Jupiter, the two brightest planets in our sky, are called “great conjunctions”.
Dec. On January 21, 2020, the most spectacular grand pairing in 800 years separated Saturn and Jupiter by just a tenth of a degree. For comparison, if you held your hand out at arm’s length and closed one eye, the apparent width of your little finger would be about one degree. Imagine a piece of that. That’s about how close Jupiter got to Saturn in 2020. It was the closest they’ve been together since March 5, 1226, and the best major conjunction until 2080.
What a magical scene, Jupiter, Venus Mars and Saturn lined up in a straight line at dawn
Unfortunately my view was obstructed by the building on the left, so I had to wait for Jupiter to appear, but the sky became clearer and Mars and Saturn disappeared.
4/20/22
Alexandria, Virginia pic.twitter.com/gjwVCqkvO1— abdulmajeed alshatti (@bosammy) April 20, 2022
Technically speaking, nothing says that a planet or a celestial body cannot pass in front of another. It happens all the time with the Earth, the Sun and the Moon. When the moon completely obscures the sun and prevents sunlight from reaching Earth, it is a total solar eclipse. Eclipses occur when objects have roughly the same apparent size in the sky.
Otherwise, a body that looks smaller can cross the face of a body that looks much larger, looking like a small speck that intercedes like a stain on whatever it blocks. This is called a transit. Venus periodically transits in front of the sun, every 243 years. Mercury transits are a little more frequent, with the last one occurring on November 1. November 11, 2019, with the next scheduled for November 11, 2019. 13, 2032. These are the only two planets that let us witness a solar transit, as they have orbits closer to the sun than we, the inhabitants of Earth .
Saturday morning’s spectacle between Venus and Jupiter won’t be a “grand” conjunction by the books, but it will still be “grand” by virtue of being both scientifically captivating and visually stimulating.
Venus will appear brighter and lower right of the dancing planets, while Jupiter dodges a bit above and to the left.
Your best bet to take advantage of the transit will be to look east before sunrise on Saturday, April 30. The hours before dawn and dusk will be the best time to do this. This is because Venus is the second closest planet to the sun, so seeing it usually requires the sun to be relatively close in the sky – which is only the case at sunrise or sunset.
Venus will be about 92.9 million kilometers from Earth on Saturday morning, roughly the same distance as the sun. It may seem like a lot, but think of Jupiter. It will be at 526.6 million miles. Even though the two are over 430 million miles apart, they will appear close simply because of where they are in their orbits.
You will be able to tell which one is Venus because it will be brighter and yellowish. This is thanks to the thick clouds of sulfuric acid that shroud its atmosphere, trapping heat and allowing the atmosphere to reach over 900 degrees. (Venus’ atmosphere is also 90 times heavier than Earth’s, which means a person on the surface would be burned to death, crushed to death, and poisoned to death all at the same time. Tourism to Venus doesn’t is not recommended under current guidelines.)
Jupiter, on the other hand, can appear to have a reddish tint to the naked eye. The gas giant rotates every 10 hours, which means that each Earth day contains about 2.4 Jupiter days, but a “year” on Jupiter is actually 12 years because it takes so long to orbit the sun.
On Sunday morning, Venus and Jupiter will still flirt in close proximity, but they will separate – Jupiter will rush up and to the right as Venus sets on the horizon.
The two weekend days will also see Mars and Saturn in ideal conditions, but they will be much fainter and harder to spot. Just draw a line up and straight from Venus and Jupiter and you might encounter them. If your skies are dark enough, this could make for a pretty special photo op.
As if that weren’t enough, parts of South America will experience a partial solar eclipse on Saturday, making the sun look like a sickle or a crescent. We will see a total lunar eclipse in the United States on the night of May 15-16.
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