Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2020 December 30

               Jupiter and Saturn Great Conjunction: The Movie
    Video Credit: Thanakrit Santikunaporn (National Astronomical Research
             Institute of Thailand); Text: Matipon Tangmatitham

   Explanation: Yes, but have you seen a movie of Jupiter and Saturn's
   Great Conjunction? The featured time-lapse video was composed from a
   series of images taken from Thailand and shows the two giant planets as
   they angularly passed about a tenth of a degree from each other. The
   first Great Conjunction sequence shows a relative close up over five
   days with moons and cloud bands easily visible, followed by a second
   video sequence, zoomed out, over 9 days. Even though Jupiter and Saturn
   appeared to pass unusually close together on the sky on December 21,
   2020, in actuality they were still nearly a billion kilometers apart.
   The two gas giants are destined for similar meet ups every 19.86 years.
   However, they had not come this close, angularly, for the past 397
   years, and will not again for another 60 years. If you're willing to
   wait until the year 7541, though, you can see Jupiter pass directly in
   front of Saturn.

     Gallery: Notable images of the Great Conjunction submitted to APOD
                       Tomorrow's picture: open space
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

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