2020 seems to be the year of groundbreaking events, and this next one will be every amateur astronomer’s favorite.
The Northern Hemisphere’s Winter Solistice will be the beginning of a very special occasion this year, namely that Jupiter and Saturn will have a very close encounter.
This celestial event will take place between the 16th and the 25th of December and the two planets will form this interesting conjunction in which they will seem to be very close to each other.
The peak will be reached on December 21 and the last time a similar event happened was 800 years ago. Patrick Hartigan, who is an astronomer at Rice University said that every 20 years the planets align in a predictable way that can be foreseen by mathematical calculations.
On this very special day of December 21, Jupiter and Saturn will appear so close to each other that the apparent distance between them will be a fifth of the diameter of a full moon. Of course, this is only an illusion as there will still be a big distance between them in space.
The phenomenon can be observed in many locations, but the best visibility will be in New York and London through a telescope if the sky will be clear. Here’s an event in 2020 that you can actually look forward to.
Photo: Stock Photos from ASTROSTAR/Shutterstock
via: PopSugar
