Planets and Moons  ID: 11597

Converging Planets

Story by Kayvon Sharghi Released on August 21, 2014
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Jupiter and Venus meet in the sky.
If you’ve never gone outside and looked up at the early morning sky, now’s a better time than ever. This week, Jupiter and Venus have fallen into a remarkably close cosmic alignment in what astronomers call a planetary conjunction. Around the time of a conjunction, two celestial bodies are seen near each other in the sky. On this occasion, Jupiter and Venus will appear to converge on the same location as they cross paths. To naked-eye observers, it will seem as if the planets are almost touching, forming what looks like a double star. The moment of closest approach has already passed, but there’s still time to catch the two planets and the moon in one spectacular view. Watch the video to learn more.
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Find out how and when the planets will cross paths in this video.
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This illustration shows the position of Jupiter and Venus in the early morning sky on August 15.
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On August 18, the two planets appear to be in the same location.
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This illustration shows the position of Jupiter (top), Venus (bottom) and the moon on August 23.

For More Information

Science@NASA

Story Credits

Lead Writer:
Kayvon Sharghi (USRA)

Please give credit for this item to:
Science@NASA and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Jupiter image courtesy of NASA
Venus image courtesy of Mattias Malmer

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11597

Keywords:
SVS >> App
NASA Science >> Planets and Moons