For all those star-gazers and telescope lovers out there, tonight is a very special night. Throughout the past month, the two brightest planets in the night sky — Venus and Jupiter — have been moving closer to each other. Tonight, they are going to get so close it will look like are bumping together — so tightly huddled they’ll look like a brilliant double star in the evening sky.
This conjunction will be tightest highly visible one in nearly two millennia. Some astronomers have in the past speculated that this earlier conjunction is what the ‘Star of Bethlehem’ in 3-2 BC referred to.
The planets, which are hundreds of millions of miles from each other, will for a short period of time seem to be galactic neighbours, passing so close they seem to merge.
Still unable to understand such complex astronomical observations? Here is a wonderful video from Science.Nasa which simplifies it all:
Known as a conjunction, the pair are set to come less than 1/3 of a degree apart on the evening of June 30, to cumulate in a jaw-dropping close encounter. The difference is going to be less than the diameter of a full Moon.
Even though conjunctions aren’t that rare, this series is the best between these planets in about 15 years. If you miss the remaining conjunctions, you’ll get another chance next year on August 27, says a National Geographic report .