Venus and Jupiter are on a ‘collision’ course

Venus and Jupiter are on a ‘collision’ course

Get ready, star-gazers: over the next few days, two of the brightest planets from our perspective -- Jupiter and Venus -- will be right on top of each other.

It’s going to be a spectacular show for skywatchers for eight straight days beginning today, with Jupiter and Venus appearing so close to each other in the sky it looks like they’re colliding into each other — even though they’re nearly 500 million miles apart.

You’ll be able to see them at twilight in the western sky as long as it’s clear enough, and Tuesday will be the best time to see them, when they appear so close together that it will look like a double star, according to a USA Today report.

These types of events, known as conjunctions, are very rare. They’ll appear so close together that you’ll be able to cover both of them with the tip of your pink finger outstretched from your body.

Of course, these planets are nowhere near each other. Venus is about 56 million miles from the Earth, while Jupiter is about 550 million miles from us. In addition, we are technically between the two planets, as Venus is the second planet from the sun, we are the third, and Jupiter is the fifth planet after Mars, which is fourth.

The next conjunction will happen on March 1 in 2023, although it won’t be quite as close, illustrating just how common these events are.

These conjunctions are similar to a series that occurred all the way back in the years 3 and 2 B.C. In fact, there are suggestions that it is this conjunction that was called the Star of Bethlehem that is central to the birth of Jesus Christ story at the heart of the Bible.

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