WASHINGTON: Venus and Jupiter, the second and fifth planets furthest from Sun respectively, are to converge on June 30.
Every week since winter in 2014, the two planets have been drawing closer to each other and are due to reach their closest point at the end of the month.
At the beginning of June, the two planets were 20 degrees apart in the sky, about twice the width of your fist held at arm’s length.
Week by week, Jupiter and the stars behind it have gradually slipped lower in the evening twilight. But Venus, due to its rapid orbital motion around the Sun, has stayed high up. The resulting slow-motion convergence is setting the stage for a pair of dramatic sky sights.
Although they’ll appear near one another, they’re actually not. The Moon is closest to Earth, just 247,000 miles away. Venus is 56 million miles from Earth, and Jupiter is 10 times farther out at just over 550 million miles.
The two planets will spend eight evenings within 2 degrees of each other from June 27th through July 4th. Astronomers refer to a close celestial pair-up like this as a “conjunction.
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