|
Credit & Copyright: Josh Dury
Explanation:
To see Venus and Jupiter
together this month, you won't need binoculars or even a telescope.
Just look up
after sunset and you'll find them
emerging as the sky grows dark near the western horizon.
In fact, on June 9 the two brightest planets were in close conjunction,
separated on the sky by less than 2 degrees from our perspective.
Since (brighter) inner planet Venus orbits the Sun faster than outer planet
Jupiter, it catches up with and passes the outer planet along the
ecliptic roughly every 13 months.
But every three years or so their resulting conjunction can be viewed
far enough from the Sun to be easily seen in Earth's twilight skies.
On June 9, the two celestial beacon's
close "cosmic kiss" was captured here next to
the two large standing stones at the cove
within a 4,000 year old
stone circle at Avebury,
UK.
Larger than Stonehenge,
the
Avebury henge and stone circle complex
is also recognized as one of the most
significant neolithic
ceremonial sites on planet Earth.
|
January February March April May June |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: conjunction
Publications with words: conjunction
See also: