This summer, Russians will be able to witness two beautiful events in the sky. First, Jupiter and Venus will be visible close to each other, and later, Jupiter and Mercury. This does not mean that the planets will actually come closer in space: from Earth, they will simply appear as bright dots almost next to each other. Mikhail Maslov, an engineer at the Vega Observatory of Novosibirsk State University, revealed the details.
The scientist explained that Jupiter and Venus are the two brightest planets visible in the Earth's sky. Sometimes, as they move across the firmament, they visually appear close to each other. For an observer from Earth, this looks like a conjunction, although in space, the planets remain far apart. Astronomers call such events conjunctions.
One such phenomenon will occur on the night of June 9-10. At this time, Jupiter and Venus will be very close in the sky: the distance between them will be 1.6 degrees. Maslov explained that this is slightly more than three apparent sizes of the Moon.
According to the specialist, several weeks before the conjunction, Jupiter and Venus will already be visible in the evenings in the western part of the sky. Initially, they will still be quite far apart, but with each day until June 9, the distance between them will gradually decrease.
Later in the summer, Jupiter will visually approach Mercury as well. The event is expected on the night of August 14-15. Maslov noted that Mercury is much closer to the Sun, so it is usually less visible. Because of this, conjunctions involving Mercury often occur too close to the Sun in the sky and remain inaccessible for observation.
But the August event will be a rare exception. Mercury is usually difficult to spot because it is close to the Sun in the sky. On the night of August 14-15, it will be noticeably further from the Sun's glare. However, you will need to look in the morning, not in the evening, as with Venus.
Комментарии