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Saturn and Jupiter align together in a celestial conjunction on Winter Solstice after several centuries

December 22, 2020
The Commune

People all over the world witnessed the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction, a rare celestial event that happens only once in every 400 years. The celestial event made Jupiter and Saturn appear as one bright star in the night sky. The event was visible to the naked eye as well, though those with a telescope would have enjoyed a better view.

However, despite appearing super close, Jupiter and Saturn will actually be more than 450 million miles (730 million km) apart. Earth, meanwhile, will be 550 million miles (890 million km) from Jupiter.

This is the first such event since 1623 and nearly 800 years after the alignment of Saturn and Jupiter occurred at night. This event last occurred in the 17th century, back in Galileo’s time. The planets were separated by just 0.1 degrees. The planets will again appear to come as close as this from the Earth only on March 15, 2080.

This is being dubbed as ‘the great conjunction’. This is because this “great conjunction” is popularly referred to as the “Christmas Star.” On December 21, almost all the viewers across the world were able to see the two gas giants very close to each other, while they were still hundreds of millions of miles apart in space. Astronomers say so-called conjunctions between the two largest planets in our solar system are not particularly rare – Jupiter passes its neighbour Saturn in their respective laps around the Sun every 20 years.