Published 15:55 IST, May 9th 2020
Jupiter, Moon, and Saturn to align together for a rare astronomical occurrence on May 12
Jupiter, Moon and Saturn will reportedly be aligning together to form a rare astronomical occurrence. Read below to know more details about the phenomenon.
- Science News
- 3 min read
The month of May in 2020 has evidently turned out to be a lucky one for people enthusiastic about experiencing astronomical phenomena. In this month, asteroid Eta Aquariid filled up the sky with enchanting hues and will be followed by Comet Atlas and SWAN which too are expected to showcase a beautiful sky before going dark. Now, it is revealed that a rare astronomical occurrence of the moon, Saturn and Jupiter coming close together will be visible to the naked eye.
Also read: NASA uncovers alluring 'chaos terrain' in its quest to find ocean on Jupiter's moon Europa
Moon, Jupiter and Saturn to come together
Image courtesy - Alexis Antonio on Unsplash
Also read: 'Ultra-hot Jupiter' KELT-9b study reveals atmospheric thermometer around hottest exoplanet
On May 12, 2020, Saturn and Jupiter will be aligned together in the sky and be close enough to be witnessed without the use of a telescope. The phenomena will be visible in the eastern sky during the early morning. This rare astronomical occurrence is called as a Conjunction. This happens when a couple of planets or a singular planet get close to one another or the moon. Though it is relative proximity and the planets are hundreds of millions of kilometres away from one another, the perspective when looked from the Earth makes it look like they are actually pretty close.
Paul Delaney, an astronomy professor at York University recently sat down with a leading daily for an interview. He revealed that Saturn, Jupiter and the moon coming together could very much look like a smiley face. One interesting thing which is also expected to happen is that the alignment of planets and the moon will look like a smiley in the northern hemisphere but people in the southern hemisphere will see it as an upside-down smiley. Jupiter and Saturn will be close to each other during May 11-13, thus the best date to experience this phenomenon would be on May 12, 2020. However, it will not be visible before 2:00 AM to the naked eye.
Updated 15:55 IST, May 9th 2020