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Credit & Copyright: Soumyadeep Mukherjee
Explanation:
Venus
and Jupiter
may have caught your attention lately.
The impending close conjunction of the two brightest
planets visible in clear evening skies
has been
hard to miss.
With Jupiter at the top, starting on February 21 and ending on March 2,
their close approach is
chronicled daily, left to right, in these
panels recorded from Dhanbad,
India.
Near the western horizon, the evening sky colors
and exposures used for each panel depend on the local conditions near sunset.
On February 22, Jupiter and Venus were joined by the
young crescent Moon.
The celestial pair appeared to be only
the width of a full moon apart by March 2.
Of course on that date
the two planets were physically separated by over 600 million
kilometers in their
orbits
around the Sun.
In the coming days
Jupiter will slowly settle into the glare at sunset,
but Venus will continue to move farther from the Sun in the
western sky to excel in its current role as the
brilliant
evening star.
Jupiter & Venus Conjunction Gallery:
Notable Submissions to APOD
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Venus - Jupiter
Publications with words: Venus - Jupiter
See also: