A Rare Sky Occurrence

by Lily

2020 has been a record-breaking year, that includes record-breaking cosmic events. In October, we had two full moons in the same month, one of them a Harvest Moon, and the other a Hunter’s Blue Moon which rose on Halloween. But NASA has spotted another record-breaking phenomenon. In the coming weeks, the night sky will exhibit an amazing natural alignment of Jupiter and Saturn, the two biggest planets in the solar system. This is known as The Great Conjunction, and will appear to be the brightest object in the sky. Starting on the winter solstice, millions of people from around the world will gaze into space to witness this rare but beautiful occurrence.

It’s been 20 years since Earth has seen a conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, but this event is far significant because it has been about 800 years since we have had the opportunity to see one so bright. According to the New York Times, “It will be the closest alignment of Saturn and Jupiter… since 1623. But that conjunction, just 14 years after Galileo built his first telescope, was 13 degrees away from the sun, making it almost impossible to view from Earth…” It won’t be until 2080 before we see an alignment of this luminosity again.

This occurrence can be seen with the naked eye. The two celestial objects will sit closely together, and it will appear to combine the brightness of the planets. Even though these gas giants are hundreds of miles apart, they will appear to be separated by 0.1 degree. With a telescope or even binoculars, though, this event can be magnified to the point of the visibility of Saturn’s rings and moons, as well as Jupiter’s largest satellites, the Galilean moons. Near the southwest horizon on the evening of December 21, 2020 and for 4 night afterward, Jupiter and Saturn will closely align 1-2 hours after sunset to form the Greatest Conjugation in hundreds of years.