Mars and Jupiter are about to make their closest approach to each other this decade, appearing to nearly touch in the night sky early tomorrow morning.
From our perspective here on Earth, they will appear so close that a hair could separate them. In reality, the gas giant and its red neighbour will be more than 575 million kilometres apart in their respective orbits.
Known as a planetary conjunction, these phenomena are fairly common because the Solar System’s planets orbit the sun on a flat plane known as the ecliptic, Stardome astronomer Josh Aoraki told 1News.
He said the conjunction will be visible to the naked eye from everywhere on Earth, dependent on weather.
“The pair will rise in the east at around 3am and be visible from then until sunrise, arching north across the sky.”
Their orbits have not brought them this close together, one behind the other, since 2018, and it won’t happen again until 2033 when they will appear even closer.
The closest approach in the past millennia occurred in 1761, when the planets appeared to the naked eye as a single bright object.
