Stargazers Witness Rare Conjunction Of Venus And Jupiter As They Shine Together

The two brightest planets in the sky appeared in one of the rarest celestial events. Jupiter and Venus came to their closest on March 1-2. Skygazers witnessed Venus and Jupiter's conjunction, the distance between the two planets was smaller than the width of a pinky finger. But in reality, the distance between Venus and Jupiter was 400 million miles. 

Throughout February, the two planets were aligned with the moon and were inching close to each other. According to NASA, the conjunction between the two planets occurs frequently in the solar system because "the planets orbit around the Sun in approximately the same plane - the ecliptic plane - and thus trace similar paths across our sky."

Astronomers say that Venus passed Jupiter as they both orbit the sun. Jackie Faherty, who's an astronomer at the American Museum of Natural History told NPR, "The inner planets move a lot faster than the outer planets. So you get a lot of these like racetrack passes."

The two planets appeared to be about 0.5 degrees apart from Earth's vantage point. The two planets were separated by the width of a pencil eraser held up at arm's length in the sky. The rare sight was visible to the naked eye as well.

The two brightest planets of the sky slid past each other during the early hours of Thursday around 2 am. The two planets will appear closer to each other on Thursday at midnight as well.

This conjunction was such a treat to people that they couldn't help but capture the rare occurrence on their devices and share it online.

The conjunction of Jupiter and Venus pic.twitter.com/y7dtlxDOLq

— Brad Perry (@bradjperry) March 2, 2023

Several Twitter users also shared dazzling images of the planetary meet-up that was joined by the Moon in the night skies.

Closest conjunction of Jupiter and Venus. They won't be this close until year 2032.

Imagine Venus passing through so close to the giant planet with so much of intense gravity…

My fresh click of beautiful celestial dance:#JupiterVenus pic.twitter.com/jJM1DIRsQv

— Kanu✨️ (@KanuS_28) March 2, 2023

Jupiter and Venus doing a nice dance pic.twitter.com/cPYzcIBXEt

— Christopher Becke (@BeckePhysics) March 2, 2023

Skywatchers can look low toward the west-southwest horizon approximately one hour after sunset and see the slender sliver of a waxing crescent moon.