Jupiter and Venus create ‘double star’

As Tuesday gets closer and closer to today, so too will the two planets inch towards each other.

Jupiter and Venus lined up after a month-long back and forth between the two.

The next conjunction is expected March 1, 2023, according to the report.

Astronomers said while the two planets appeared close together in the sky, they were separated by hundreds of millions of miles.

Even people down under are getting in on the action, and they have a front-row seat to Venus and Jupiter in their prime. “And right now, it’s joined by Jupiter for the first and closest conjunction in a rare set of three”. In terms of size, Venus and Jupiter are very different. The giant gas planet obits the sun at around 565 million miles from the Earth, while Venus sits just 58 million miles from us.

The two planets are bright enough to see while the sun is still shining, though in the dark they are much more impressive.

According to Sky and Telescope, during the timeframe when Christ was born, the same conjunction was going on with the planets.

As such, the said series of Venus-Jupiter conjunctions “closely resembles a similar series between the years 3 and 2 B.C”. They will be within a thumb’s width through Saturday night. “That more brilliant one is Venus, and it’s now having its best showing for northern observers of 2015 as it shines brightest and appears highest in the evening sky”.

“To the eye they’ll look like a double star”, Kelly Beatty, a senior editor at Sky & Telescope magazine, told CBS News.