Crater Net – Agencies
The Astronomical Society in Jeddah revealed that the sky of Saudi Arabia and the Arab world will witness, before sunrise on the morning of next Sunday, an exceptional conjunction between the planets Venus and Jupiter.
In the details, the association’s president, Majed Abu Zahira, explained that “the sky of Saudi Arabia and the Arab world will witness before sunrise on the morning of Sunday, May 1, 2022 (the last day of the blessed month of Ramadan) an exceptional conjunction between Venus and Jupiter, as they will be at the closest apparent distance, And they will be separated by a small part of the degree “0.2” on the southeast horizon, as the last time this happened was in August 2016,” noting that “the coupling occurs when planets appear close to each other in the sky from our perspective on Earth.”
Abu Zahira pointed out that “usually the distance between objects during the conjunction varies from 0.5 degrees to 9 degrees, and sometimes the planets come closer – as happened in the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 2020 when separated by less than 0.1 degrees – and such an event is called the name The “Great Conjunction”, and the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter will be approximately the same distance, which will provide a wonderful show, explaining that “this phenomenon has no effect on the globe.”
The head of the Jeddah Astronomical Society added that “the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter occurs once a year, but this year the two planets will appear much closer than it is usually, as the observer will see the two planets with the naked eye as if they are touching each other, and that due to the glow emanating from them, the observer may see as if they merge into One very bright glow,” noting that “the merging of Venus and Jupiter is only apparent, as the orbit of Venus is closer to the sun than the Earth’s orbit, and the orbit of Jupiter is much farther, separated by more than 600 million kilometers, so the approach between them is not real, it happens because the Earth and Venus And Jupiter is almost aligned in space on the same side of the solar system.”
Majed Abu Zahra added: Venus will be the brightest planet between the two; Its luminosity is (-4.1) compared to Jupiter (-2.1), which means that it is about six times brighter, and its disk is 67 percent bright. However, Jupiter will appear larger than Venus through binoculars or a small telescope, and will be accompanied by its four large moons.
He continued: “Given that the moon is in the new moon, it will be easier to see the two planets almost touching the sky, as long as the sky is clear, and the pairing can be monitored from anywhere on the globe, and the two planets will not appear so close again until March 2023,” explaining that “after On the day of the conjunction, the apparent distance between Jupiter and Venus will increase, and they will gradually move away from each other.