Venus and Jupiter, in a rare conjunction, appear close, although they were 400 million miles apart.
Stan Honda/AFP via Getty Images
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Stan Honda/AFP via Getty Images
Venus and Jupiter, in a rare conjunction, appear close, although they were 400 million miles apart.
Stan Honda/AFP via Getty Images
Last night, after dinner, I went outside to take care of our chickens. And I literally gasped. In the sky there were two bright shining objects close to each other. She was beautiful, with an extraordinary face. I felt a tingle of joy and a moment of calm. I felt what they call fear of the mind – an emotion that can relieve stress and calm the nerves. Who doesn’t need it?
And tonight is going to be a better night to experience this fear. So after sunset I take my whole family outside to feel this warm and beautiful feeling. Because these two bright objects – the planets Venus and Jupiter – will be closer.
“They came closer and closer to the night kiss,” says Jackie Faherty, who is an astronomer at the American Museum of Natural History.
Of course, in the space of the planet is not really to smooch. “There are 400 million miles,” Faherty says. That’s four times more distance than we are from the sun.
What is going on is what astronomers call a Venus-Jupiter “conjunction”. “Venus passes Jupiter as both orbit the sun,” Faherty explains. “The inner planets move a lot faster than the outer planets. So a lot of them pass like a stage,” he said.
Therefore, as the orbs pass, they appear to be about 5 degrees apart from our point on Earth. That is, the two planets will be separated by the width of a pencil, which are arms in the sky in longitude.
To see this beautiful event, go outside as darkness falls and look west toward the sunset. “It’s not like you’re missing these two lights shining in the sky,” says Diana Hannikainen, who is an editor at Sky & Telescope magazine “Certainly Venus is brighter and the right one. Jupiter is the most smooth one.”
And while you’re looking, try something new. Stop for a moment and focus on how extraordinary the universe is. How far away are these planets? how mysterious they are. And how small you are.
“Look at that sky and think, “Wow! It’s big,” says psychologist Michelle Shiota at Arizona State University. “This is so much bigger than me. It is so much bigger than my life and my problems. Those are real problems though.”
This is horror, says Shiota, which can give us perspective and humble us. “And it seems that just help us calm down a little bit.”
If I need an event tonight, I’ll check on Thursday night. The two planets still appear quite close, continuing their celestial dance. But soon I will go to arms at last.
#Venus #Jupiter #nocturnal #kiss
