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In the early hours of Wednesday first light ( Aug. 14 ) , two of thesolar system ’s brightest and most famed planet will look to hap exceptionally faithful to each other . In this rare conjunction ofJupiterandMars , the two planets will lie a bare third of a degree apart in the dark sky .
A erratic conjunction describes when two or more planets come out to be close to each other . This conjunction will be best seen from around 2:00 a.m. local prison term until dawn on Wednesday . During that time , the two planet will get up in the northeastern night sky with the constellation Taurus , and move about 50 academic degree above the eastern horizon by daybreak .
Jupiter and Mars will be separated by just a third of a degree on Aug. 14.
Although Jupiter will be about 20 time brighter than Mars , both major planet will be easily visible to the naked eye from anywhere in the populace with unclouded sky . However , a salutary pair ofstargazing binocularsor asmall telescopewill enhance the view . Not only will you see the major planet more clearly with such optical assist , but the four largest moons of Jupiter will also be visible . Ganymede and Callisto will flank Jupiter , with thehighly volcanic Sun Myung Moon Ioandpotentially habitable Europabetween Jupiter and Ganymede . Mars will appear somewhat above Jupiter and its moons .
If you ca n’t catch the conjunction in person , theVirtual Telescope Project , based in Italy , will host a livestream of the entire celestial result as it becomes seeable over Europe . The stream begins at 10:30 p.m. ET tonight ( Tuesday , Aug. 13 ) . you may catch iton YouTube , or in the embedded video below .
— NASA ’s Juno investigation give away ' fire - ventilation ' lava lake across Jupiter ’s volcanic moon Io
— Grand Canyon - size of it ' scar ' on Mars revealed like never before in hit new satellite picture
— NASA ’s Curiosity scouter accidentally disclose radical - rare sulfur crystals after crushing a rock on Mars
Although the planets will come along to be very close together during this coincidence , that is merely an optical illusion . In reality , Mars is in the foreground and Jupiter is 300 million miles ( 500 million km ) further away , according toEarthSky .
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This planetary colligation is the last of the yr . The next one will take post on Jan. 20 , 2025 , whenVenusandSaturnwill crossbreed paths . However , the next planetary high spot for skywatchers will be the annual foeman of Saturn .
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