A long time ago, 800 years to be exact, Saturn and Jupiter appeared visibly close to each other. On December, 21st, 2020, Saturn will become visible within 0.1 degree of Jupiter, making this the first time it can be seen since the year 1226. Both Saturn and Jupiter will slowly get closer together throughout the month of December, with the closest alignment being on 2020/12/21 just after sunset.
Since the two planets will be 0.1 degree apart from each other, this means on the Monday, it will come across as one bright light. Which can also be perceived as a ‘Christmas Star’ because of how rare this is.
The conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter actually takes place every 20 years, however, they rarely come within 0.1 degree of each other. The last time they did, in 1623, it wasn’t visible to the human eye because of how close the planets aligned to the sun.
Only residents of the northern hemisphere will be able to see this, however, it has over 90% of the worlds population. This will occur just after dark, Jupiter will be on the left and Saturn will be on the right.
This occurrence is interesting because even though this happens every 20 years, which is rare enough, it’s exceptionally rare because of how close the planets will be to one another.
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