Two Bright Planets Scheduled to Meet in the Night Sky

Venus and Jupiter, two of our solar system’s brightest planets, will meet in the night sky during a period of many days during August. This special occasion where planets millions of miles apart are seen very close to each other from Earth is a conjunction. Though this conjunction will happen through a couple days, the best time to see this event is August 11th and 12th from a high view.

After the conjunction is over, Venus and Jupiter will continue to orbit at their own speed and separate. On the morning of August 12th, these two bright planets were at their closest but will stay together for around another week, slowly drifting apart. These planets, at early dawn, are clearly visible to the naked eye, without needing a telescope or binoculars.

“They are actually 400 million miles apart,” Jackie Faherty, an astronomer at the American Museum of Natural History, explains. “Venus is passing Jupiter as they both orbit the sun. The inner planets move a lot faster than the outer planets. So you get a lot of these racetrack passes.” Though these planets are very far apart, from Earth’s perspective, they seem to be very close to each other.

While Venus is on the right and is brighter with a slightly white glow, Jupiter is on the left and appears to be golden. “Although it’s smaller than Jupiter, Venus appears brighter because it’s much closer to the sun,” said Morgan Hollis of the Royal Astrological Society. “This means that more light hits it and can be reflected off to be visible from Earth.”

“The weather has been ideal for us to take a look at what’s going on,” Leigh Fletcher, a Jupiter scientist at the University of Leicester, said. The predawn of August 12th was the best time to see the two planets meet, but throughout the month, the planets will stay together but slowly start moving away from each other.

This astronomical event, a conjunction, while not uncommon, is a beautiful scene that fascinates astronomers and many people. The conjunction has been one of the most recent events for what has been an exciting year for stargazers and can be seen from San Jose, California, Connecticut, and

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/30/health/venus-jupiter-photos-gbr-scli-intl, https://www.npr.org/2023/03/01/1160382060/look-up-venus-and-jupiter-are-going-in-for-a-nighttime-kiss, https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/articles/ckgdx2g7my0o