The Great Conjunction of 2020
Our Solar System’s two largest planets, Saturn and Jupiter came in their closest proximity in 20 years, visible as a large, oblong star when seen from the naked eye and generally easily visible as two distinct planets, one with the rings of orbiting moons and one without when viewing through a telescope.
The Great Conjunction is an occurrence that happens almost every 19.859 Julian years (where one Julian year equals 365.25 days) and is specifically the phenomenon where the Solar System’s ice giant planets appear to come closest together within their own orbits as seen from the Earth. During the event, the planets appear together and eventually, the largest planet of our system, Jupiter, eventually overtakes the 82-moon Saturn.
According to Florent Deleflie at the Paris Observatory, this year’s Conjunction appeared as a very bright “double planet” from the naked eye while viewers could “see Jupiter’s equatorial bands and its main satellites and Saturn’s rings” with something as basic as small binoculars.
Not only was this year’s Conjunction easily visible, it also coincided with the year’s Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year on December 21st, 2020. In fact, due to the timing of the event, it is also being called the Christmas Star, though this occurrence has nothing to do with Christmas and is merely a celestial event happening in the same week – it has occurred at numerous other times of the year over the past since it first started being recorded in the 1200s (according to the Wikipedia page for the event).
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Credit: Raman Madhira/Raysastrophotograhy/Creative Commons
