A Rare Planetary Alignment Not Seen In 800 Years Awaits In December; Know All About It

A rare celestial event is going to occur this December. According to experts the last time the phenomenon occurred was in the middle ages! Know more about it.

New Delhi: Stargazers are in for a treat this year as a rare celestial awaits next month. Known as the  'Great Conjunction 2020' on December 21, 2020, the sky will have an unusually bright star. This phenomenon will occur as the Solar System’s two largest planets- Jupiter and Saturn will get really close to each other forming a very bright point in the sky.

What is a conjunction?

A planetary conjunction is an illusion in which two objects appear to be very close together. It is a just line-of-sight phenomenon and it does not actually occur in real.

What will happen to Jupiter and Saturn?

On December 21, 2020, Jupiter and Saturn will be so close that it will appear as a shiny object in the night sky. Both planets have been inching closer to each other since the beginning of the year.  Usually, as both planets complete their revolutions around the sun they have a rendezvous every  20 years. Jupiter overtakes Saturn but this time they'll be separated by only 1/5th the diameter of a full moon. Astronomer Patrick Hartigan of US-based Rice University said in an official release regarding the planetary conjunction, “Alignments between these two planets are rather rare, occurring once every 20 years or so, but this conjunction is exceptionally rare because of how close the planets will appear to one another.”

He added, “You’d have to go all the way back to just before dawn on March 4, 1226, to see a closer alignment between these objects visible in the night sky.”