I'm an award-winning journalist writing about the night sky and eclipses.
today—and everyone missed it. A rare close pass of the two brightest planets in the night sky occurred at 04:00 EST on Thursday, May 23, during which Venus and Jupiter passed within just 10 arc-minutes of each other—one-sixth of one degree.Astronomers predicted the Jupiter-Venus event and it happened on schedule, but it was impossible to observe because of where it occurred—just a few degrees from the sun, from Earth’s point of view.
SOHO—which orbits the sun 932,000 miles from Earth—has a telescope equipped with a coronagraph, which has an occulter disk it uses to artificially create an eclipse of the sun. That allows it to focus on the sun without its bright disk ruining its optics. SOHO is there to collect data on space weather, monitoring the sun for solar flares and coronal mass ejections—the events that causedThe planets are converging next to the sun, where the glare is blindingly bright. Only SOHO can see the show. Its LASCO C3 coronagraph onboard the spacecraft creates an artificial eclipse, revealing stars, planets and CMEs.
In addition to Venus and Jupiter, the Pleiades are also currently nearby and in its field of view. Also called the “Seven Sisters, it’s the closest and most spectacular open cluster of stars to the solar system at about 440 light-years distant.Jupiter and Venus are on the opposite side of the sun to Earth. Jupiter has been tracking beneath the sun for the last week as it moves from the evening sky to the morning sky.
The giant planet was in conjunction with the sun on May 18, so it moved from left to right on SOHO’s images. Venus has been tracking in the opposite direction. It is moving from the morning sky to the evening sky and will be in conjunction with the sun on June 4.Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space.
Venus Jupiter Conjunction Planets Solar System SOHO Space Weather Aurora NASA SHO Northern Lights
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