WINTER SOLSTICE: Really missing, after 800 years the ‘STAR of BETHLEHEM’ returns. THE DETAILS
21 December 2020: the Star of Bethlehem arrivesMark this date: 21 December 2020, very little is missing.
In addition to dropping the winter solstice in the sky we will be able to witness an event of rare beauty: the great conjunction. It will be the astronomical event of this year marred by the pandemic.
What is it about?
In the sky there is a conjunction when two stars seem to approach each other (in reality, however, this is not the case).
Every month you can admire various conjunctions, for example between the Moon and some planet (Mars, Venus) or between a planet and a particularly bright star, or even between two planets.
The great conjunction will occur between the two largest planets in the solar system: the lord of the rings, Saturn, and the gas giant, Jupiter.
Already this summer, the two planets can be seen in our sky and can currently be seen to the south.
For those who have seen them in recent months, they will have noticed that the two are getting closer and closer, this is because the giant “runs” faster than the Lord of the Rings and in December it will reach him and then overtake him.
As we write you, the two planets can already be seen very close to each other, that is, they are already in close conjunction.
Well, on December 21 they will meet then practically attached, how to see one light, a single planet: here is the Great Conjunction explained.
This alignment will be truly exceptional as, as he reported in a statement published by the Rice University astronomer Patrick Hartigan, it is from 1226 that Jupiter and Saturn will not be so close to each other, basically from nearly 800 years.
Jupiter and Saturn will remain in close conjunction until the end of December!
But if in our eyes they seem similar to a single planet, in reality Jupiter and Saturn will be about 730 million km apart.
CURIOSITY’ – The famous German astronomer Johanes Kepler (Kepler), reported in 1614 that the “star or comet of Bethlehem“could have been a splendid conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn with the complicity of Venus. This year Venus will not be there, but the” Christmas Star “can be seen anyway.
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