LeperKhanz | Last Christmas

Jupiter and Saturn will have a rare meeting on December 21, 2020.

For the first time in 800 years, earthlings will be able to see the Milky Way’s two biggest planets so close together it’ll look like they’re touching.

Saturn and Jupiter will have a rare meeting from our vantage point on Dec. 21, 2020. The “conjunction,” or alignment, of the two planets hasn’t happened since 1226. Since the two planets are the biggest gas bodies in our solar system, experts call this one a “Great Conjunction.”

The two planets have been rather close in the sky lately, however, “it is fair to say that this conjunction is truly exceptional in that the planets get very close to one another,” Patrick Hartigan, a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University, wrote in a blog entry on the conjunction.

During this year’s conjunction, “both planets will be visible in the same field of view in most small telescopes, along with some of Jupiter’s and Saturn’s moons,”

“In fact, they will be so close it may be a challenge to separate them with the unaided eye for many people.”