Greatest Conjunction After 400 Years Jupiter And Saturn Come Close.
Greatest Conjunction After 400 Years Jupiter And Saturn Come Close.
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upiter and Saturn being the two largest planets of our solar system, the occurrence of the ‘Great Conjunction’ between the two will be seen today on the 21stDecember and in India it will be visible from 6:30pm to 7:30pm. Once in every 20 years planet Jupiter and Saturn pass each other but this year for the first time in nearly 400 years the two largest planets will be close to each other making this year a time of great conjunction.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said the alignment will appear just a tenth of a degree apart and will be lasting for a few days; the sky-watchers from Earth will witness the great conjunction with their naked eyes.
Popularly known as the ‘Christmas Star’ the conjunction according to the Bible was the star that guided three wise men to baby Jesus. The ‘Christmas Star’ or the ‘Star of Bethlehem’ is strongly believed that the conjunction of two gas giants in the year 1623 was first viewed. The existence of such a star has been debated by astronomers but it is theorized that in the year 7 BC, there was 3 conjunctions in the same constellation and it could explain what the star was actually like.
In 400 years these two planetary giants are going to be this close to one another and for the first time in 800 years the occurrence of the alignment will be witnessed during the night time. The occurrence of this event is purely out of coincidence that on the day of winter solstice on December 21, the great conjunction will be visible an hour after the sun sets in the south-western sky.
As per NASA the conjunction is going to be such that the stellar event will be visible to everyone in the world. Not only the great conjunction, the year of 2020 has already witnessed numerous celestial phenomena like the Geminids meteor shower, a total solar eclipse and the Ursoid meteor shower.
