Don’t miss this! Jupiter, Saturn will look like double planet for the first time since Middle Ages
In a few weeks from now, BUZZ Fam, you will bear witness to an event that hasn’t happened since the middle ages! Yes, you read that right. On December 21, get ready to see Jupiter and Saturn looking like double planets.
“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,” Rice University astronomer Patrick Hartigan said.
“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.”
Jupiter and Saturn have been approaching one another in Earth’s sky since summer. From December 16-25, they will be separated by less than the diameter of a full moon.
The event will be observable anywhere on Earth, but you’ll get the best view if you are located near the equator. Hartigan said the planetary duo will appear low in the western sky for about an hour after sunset each evening.
“The further north a viewer is, the less time they’ll have to catch a glimpse of the conjunction before the planets sink below the horizon,” he said.
You better try getting a view of this BUZZ Fam, because an event like this won’t happen until 2080.