Overlay images from Hubble of Jupiter and Mars. Credit: Jupiter: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center) and MH Wong (University of California, Berkeley), Mars: NASA / ESA, J. Bell (Cornell U.) and M. Wolff (SSI)
Most star observers will have a privileged opportunity to observe the planets Jupiter and Mars approaching the sky incredibly before dawn on the nights of May 27-30.
About 45 minutes before the local sunrise, the two planets will appear 20 degrees or so above the horizon in the east-southeast sky, against the constellation Pisces. This Mars-Jupiter conjunction will be visible, except for local weather issues, in the hours before dawn each morning from May 27 to May 30. The conjunction will peak at 3:57 a.m. CDT on May 29th.
“Planetary conjunctions have traditionally been more about astrology than serious astronomy, but they never fail to impress during observations, especially when the gas giants are involved,” said Mitzi Adams, an astronomer and Marshall Space researcher. NASA Flight Center in Huntsville. Alabama.
During this conjunction, two planets appear together in the Earth’s night sky. In the case of the Earth’s solar system, the conjunctions occur frequently because our sister planets travel around the Sun in a fairly similar ecliptic plane, often appearing to be in our night sky despite being millions of miles away. of each other.
Celestial graph showing how Jupiter and Mars will appear in the sky before sunrise May 28-30. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
At their closest point, Mars and Jupiter will not be more than 0.6 degrees apart. Astronomers commonly use degrees to measure the angular distance between objects in the night sky. For Earth observers, the distance between the two planets will be no more than the width of a raised finger, with Mars appearing just below the right bottom of the massive gas giant.
It may be necessary to use binoculars or a telescope to detect Mars clearly, said Alphonse Sterling, a NASA astronomer working with Adams on Marshall. But he noted that observers should have no problem identifying Jupiter, even with the naked eye.
“We predict that Jupiter will shine at a magnitude of -2.2,” Sterling said. “Mars, by comparison, will have a magnitude of only 0.7.”
The brightness of celestial bodies is measured by their magnitude value, a number that decreases as the brightness increases. A negative value indicates that the planet or moon is easy to see in the night sky, even with ambient light.
Mars and Jupiter are millions of miles from us, of course: more than 136 million miles will separate Earth and Mars at the time of the conjunction, with Jupiter almost four times as far away. Still, Jupiter will be the brighter of the two. With a planetary diameter of about 4,200 miles, Mars is eclipsed by the massive Jovian giant, which has a diameter of about 89,000 miles. Because Mars is much smaller, it reflects much less sunlight.
Mars also orbits the Sun faster, turning east into our night sky fast enough to leave behind its heavy gas counterpart. Mars will reach Jupiter again and pass it on during another conjunction in August 2024.
Adams and Sterling hope to detect the planetary conjunction.
“It’s exciting to look up and recognize that these two worlds represent the breadth of NASA’s planned and potential goals for science and exploration,” Adams said. “As NASA prepares to send the first human explorers to Mars, the possibilities could be virtually limitless for innovative scientific discoveries among the fascinating moons of Jupiter.”
“This conjunction brings together two very different worlds, which have an incredible promise to help us better understand our solar system, the place of humanity in the cosmos and where we can go as a species,” Sterling added.
“Get out before sunrise on May 29 and look at them yourself, and imagine all we still have to learn from them,” he added.
Enjoy this heavenly event as you look at the sky!