Want to see the biggest planet of the solar system shine with naked eyes? Now is a perfect time, mark the night of August 19!
If you are a keen sky observer, you might have seen this brightest object in the west direction rising at dusk time.
Have you been wondering about this brightest object? Did you think of it as a star or thought of it as a planet?
That's the Venus planet, the second planet from the sun in our solar system which shines due to its atmosphere covered with highly reflective clouds, making it appear very bright. But that's the topic for another day!
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| Photo credits: Photo by Sven Scheuermeier on Unsplash |
You came to this page to read about the largest planet and I am here talking about Venus. I apologize for deviating but I mentioned Venus here to actually eliminate the confusion.
Jupiter will be seen very shiny and bright on August 19 dusk till August 20 dawn but in the east direction, opposite to Venus. You can see it after the sunset clearly.
Let's get to the topic without deviating any further:
Why is Jupiter going to shine suddenly?
The answer to this is that planets that are further from the Sun than Earth such as Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune come into opposition at some point. The duration after which they come into opposition differs for each planet, mostly a year or two.
Now, what is the opposition?
Opposition is when the planet comes at the closest point to the Earth and is directly positioned opposite to the sun with the earth being right in the middle. Confused? Don't worry, I got confused too.
Look at this picture saying the same things but in visual context:
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| Picture credits: Swinburne University of Technology |
Jupiter last moved into opposition in the month of July in 2020. This year, the king of planets will be seen in opposition again from August 19 at 8:38 p.m. until August 20 at 5:30 a.m., rising in the east direction. The highest point will be at around 1 a.m and according to some sources, the best time to view would be 11 am.
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| Picture credits: The Irish News |
Jupiter has 79 moons. A lot of moons, right?
Below, I have added an official video by NASA showing Juno spacecraft flying past the Moon Ganymede and Jupiter. Ganymede orbits around Jupiter and is the largest moon in our solar system with a diameter that is 0.41 times that of Earth.
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