Venus and Jupiter have set up a date on June 30 with both coming close enough to seemingly look to be a single entity in the night sky. So bright will be the coming together of the two planets that astronomers have said the celestial spectacle will be visible to even the naked eye. Those interested will just have to watch out the western sky just post sunset.
Astronomers have further stated that conjunctions of this type aren't exactly rare though most of these go unnoticed. But not tonight as its two of the brightest planets of the solar system that is involved this time. Both Jupiter and Venus have been making close passes for the entire month of June but it is only today that both are going to fall in line.
Thereafter, it will be the separation phase with both drifting apart until the planets fall below the horizon and beyond our line of view. According to VOX, the next time we can see Venus and Jupiter coming for an astronomical conjunction again will be on Aug. 27, 2016.
That is pretty much soon considering the last time we have seen the coming together of the two planets was on 1991, Gizmodo reported.
From a scientific point of view, Venus and Jupiter won't exactly be in the same line exactly but will be separated by one-third of a degree. That will be insignificant for us though as it's a single bright spot that we would be greeted with in the western sky, formed by Venus in the forefront and Jupiter just behind it.
Also, Jupiter, the biggest planet of the solar system will appear the same size as the earth-sized Venus given that Venus is much closer to us than Jupiter. It is roughly five times the distance between the sun and earth that sums up the distance between earth and Jupiter even though it is constantly changing considering the highly elliptical orbit that the latter follows.
Jupiter is also the third brightest object in the night sky, after the Moon and Venus.