JUPITER SET TO OVERTAKE VENUS

JUPITER SET TO OVERTAKE VENUS

By Dr N T Jiwaji

Two extremely bright planets, Venus and Jupiter have been visible in the night skies since last November, but are now very close together. The two shine as bright stars in the western evening sky, with Venus the brighter of the two.

Slow moving Jupiter has been steadily inching westwards over the past several months and is now set to overtake the faster Venus. Their conjunction (closest meeting) will occur on Thursday March 15. Though they appear close as seen from Earth, out in space they remain millions of kilometers apart.

Jupiter has been the higher of the two bright stars for a long time now but on Saturday March 16 it will be at the same elevation as Venus. After that, Jupiter will dip below Venus as seen in the series of pictures.

Such an arrangement is very rare. The next spectacular conjunction will occur in July 2015 when the two planets will

On March 25 and 26, a thin crescent Moon is set to team up with the two planets to produce spectacular arrangement of the heavenly bodies in the evening skies.

Of the eight (not nine!) planets in our solar system six are visible and we can see five of these in the evening skies now. After 8 pm, while Jupiter and Venus are setting in the west, bright red Mars is high in the East while Saturn rises in the eastern horizon.