Even the planets are getting into the Christmas spirit this year! On December 21st, look up and you may just see the ‘Christmas Star’! Read on for more details about this exciting celestial event.
Southern Living ~ ” On December 21, Jupiter and Saturn will come so close together that they will look like a ‘double planet,’ a conjunction that will appear to us on Earth like one super-bright point of light.
‘Alignments between these two planets are rather rare, occurring once every 20 years or so, but this conjunction is exceptionally rare because of how close the planets will appear to be to one another,’ Patrick Hartigan, astronomer at Rice University, told Forbes. ‘You’d have to go all the way back to just before dawn on March 4, 1226, to see a closer alignment between these objects visible in the night sky.’
Photo by Lucas Pezeta from Pexels
This incredible phenomenon has been known historically as the ‘Christmas Star’ or ‘Star of Bethlehem.’
Hoping to catch a peek of the ‘great conjunction’ yourself? According to Forbes, the event will be observable anywhere where skies are clear for about an hour after sunset on December 21, the Winter Solstice. Be sure to mark your calendars, a conjunction this close won’t happen again until March 15, 2080!” ~ Southern Living
Click the link below to learn more about the ‘Christmas Star’!
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