CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Mars and Jupiter are coming close in the night sky for their closest rendezvous this decade.
They will be so close on Wednesday, from our viewpoint, that just a sliver of the moon could fit between them. In reality, our solar system’s largest planet and its dimmer, reddish neighbor will be more than 350 million miles apart in their respective orbits.
Their orbits will bring them closest together – one-third of 1 degree or about one-third the width of the moon – during daylight hours Wednesday in most of the Americas, Europe, and Africa.
The two planets will appear close in the eastern sky, towards the constellation Taurus, before daybreak. These cosmic pairings, known as planetary conjunctions, occur only every three years or so.
Such events are mostly items of curiosity and beauty for skywatchers, wondering what the two bright objects so close together might be,” said Jon Giorgini of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. “The science is in the ability to accurately predict the events years in advance.”
This close link-up of Mars and Jupiter coincides with the Perseid meteor shower, one of the year’s brightest showers. No binoculars or telescopes are needed.
Their orbits haven’t brought them this close together, one behind the other since 2018. It won’t happen again until 2033 when they’ll get even closer,” he continued.
The closest encounter in the past 1,000 years was in 1761 when Mars and Jupiter appeared as a single bright object to the naked eye. Looking ahead, the year 2348 will be almost as close.
This latest conjunction of Mars and Jupiter is also during the Perseid meteor shower, one of the year’s brightest. No equipment needed.
