Tonight look west to see a cool astronomical phenomenon: the two brightest planets, Venus and Jupiter, will seemingly collide in the night sky. Of course, the planets aren't actually hitting each other — in reality, they're hundreds of millions miles apart. But from our vantage point, they've been steadily approaching each other throughout the month of June. This evening will mark their closest pass — scientifically known as a conjunction — as they move within a third of a degree of each other. Because the two planets are so bright, they can easily be spotted without binoculars or a telescope and can even be seen before night completely falls. Just look to the west, and you'll see the two planets nearly touching, forming what looks like a double star fairly close to the horizon. These sorts of conjunctions occur because the planets orbit the sun at different rates: it takes Venus only 225 (Earth) days to complete a lap around the sun, compared to 12 (Earth) years for Jupiter. As a result, from our vantage point, they occasionally appear to pass each other in the sky — and if they align just right in a straight line with Earth, they appear to collide.

Entire Thread

Topic	Date Posted	Posted By
Jupiter and Venus	30/06/15 22:11:00	James Petri
Re:Jupiter and Venus	30/06/15 22:42:00	Delilah Hall
Re:Jupiter and Venus	30/06/15 23:21:00	Ian Wylie
Re:Re:Jupiter and Venus	30/06/15 23:32:00	Delilah Hall

Forum Home