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Venus and Jupiter Will Appear to ‘Kiss’ in the Sky

Written by Reananda Hidayat Permono Completed Master of Science - MS, Petroleum Geology from Curtin University, Perth, Australia.

During clear nights over the past week, you could see a conjunction of Venus and Jupiter around the early evening hours in the western sky.

There were three objects, with the moon as the most apparent entity.

Meanwhile, Venus seems brighter than Jupiter since it’s close to Earth.

The moon has moved away, but Venus and Jupiter remain close in the night sky.

Although they look close, both planets are more than 400 million miles apart.

According to NASA, a dim Jupiter will seem to move westward, while Venus will appear to move in the other direction.

At their closest, Venus and Jupiter are expected to be just half a degree apart or around the diameter of a full moon.

Over the next week, they will appear as the two brightest objects in the western sky.

Venus and Jupiter will continue to part over time and meet this closely again on Feb. 7, 2032.

However, Venus will appear in the night sky for the year's first half.

It will reach its highest point in the evening sky in early June.

Conjunctions between planets usually happen since they orbit around the sun in nearly the same plane and trace similar paths across the sky.

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Designed by Alexander Rabu

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