agencies
Posted on: Saturday, April 30, 2022 – 2:18 AM | Last update: Saturday 30 April 2022 – 2:18 AM
The Astronomical Society in Jeddah revealed that the sky of the Arab world will witness, before sunrise on Sunday morning, an exceptional conjunction between the planets Venus and Jupiter.
And Saudi media quoted the association’s president, Majed Abu Zahira, as saying that the planets Venus and Jupiter will be at the closest apparent distance, and a small part of the degree “0.2” will separate them on the southeast horizon.
The last time this happened was in August 2016. The conjunction occurs when planets appear close to each other in the sky from perspective on Earth.
According to Abu Zahra, the distance between objects during the conjunction usually varies from 0.5 degrees to 9 degrees, and sometimes the planets get closer – as happened in the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 2020 when they were separated by less than 0.1 degrees.
Such an event is called the Great Conjunction, and the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter will be approximately the same distance, which will make a wonderful show, in a phenomenon that will not have an impact on the globe.
The conjunction of Venus and Jupiter occurs once a year, but this year the two planets will appear much closer than it is usually, as the observer will see the two planets with the naked eye as if they are touching each other, and given the glow emanating from them, the observer may see that they merge into one very bright glow.
The same source indicated that the merging of Venus and Jupiter will be only apparent, as the orbit of Venus is closer to the sun than the orbit of the Earth, and the orbit of Jupiter is much farther, separated by more than 600 million kilometers, so the approach between them is not real, it happens because the Earth, Venus and Jupiter are almost aligned. In space on the same side of the solar system.