WEBVTT - What Is the Great Conjunction? 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:06.480 Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey 0:00:06.559 --> 0:00:11.280 brain Stuff Lauren Bogelbaum here. Despite this most recent orbit 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:16.200 being dominated by earthly struggles, has been an incredible year 0:00:16.280 --> 0:00:20.960 for astronomy. Whether it's SpaceX making headlines by launching Starlink 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:24.680 satellites to provide WiFi for the world, or sending astronauts 0:00:24.680 --> 0:00:28.800 to the International Space Station twice, or the unexpected delight 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:32.760 of watching Comet Neo wise journey across the sky. There 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:36.240 have been some inspiring reasons to keep gazing up all 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:40.840 year long. Before the ball drops and we reset our calendars, 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:44.960 there's one more spectacular astronomical experience to mark on your calendar, 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:49.720 the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on December one. 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:53.040 This celestial event is a once in a lifetime opportunity 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:55.480 to see the gas giants of our Solar system appears 0:00:55.520 --> 0:00:58.400 so close together in the sky that they'll appear to touch. 0:00:59.120 --> 0:01:01.960 They won't, in act, and will actually be four hundred 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:06.800 million miles apart. It's all a matter of perspective based 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:09.839 on their orbits Jupiter, which orbits the Sun every eleven 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:13.240 point nine years, and Saturn, which orbits once every twenty 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:16.160 nine point five years, and the two planets appear close 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:20.520 together roughly every nineteen point six years, but when they do, 0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:23.520 it's called a great conjunction, and the last one occurred 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:25.600 in the dawn hours of May twenty eight, in the 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:30.800 year two thousand. This year's great conjunction is particularly special 0:01:30.920 --> 0:01:33.120 as it's the closest these two planets will appear in 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:36.560 the sky since March fourth of twelve, twenty six, and 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:39.600 so it's been nearly eight hundred years since Jupiter and 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:42.400 Saturn have appeared this close together due to the two 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:46.479 planets orbits as well as our earthly one. Although there 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:49.720 was a close Jupiter Satder conjunction in sixteen twenty three, 0:01:49.960 --> 0:01:51.680 it was too near to the Sun to be seen 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:55.320 without a telescope and so was likely not observed by many, 0:01:55.520 --> 0:01:59.840 the telescope being a new object at the time. This year, 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:03.400 the planets will appear very close, less than one fifth 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:06.559 the diameter of a full moon, or roughly zero point 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:10.520 one degrees apart in the sky. Astronomers use degrees as 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:13.680 the largest unit of distance between objects in the sky. 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:17.079 Most times, when two planets appear close together, there within 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:20.200 two to four degrees of one another. To get a 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:22.600 sense of how close Jupiter and Saturn will be in 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:25.200 the night sky on the twenty one. Hold your arms 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:28.160 straight out and make a fist, then stick up your 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:31.919 pinkie finger at arm's length. The diameter of your pinkie 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:34.799 finger is roughly equivalent to one degree of distance in 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:38.760 the sky. Jupiter and Saturn will appear one tenth of 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:43.120 the diameter of your pinky apart. With Saturn and Jupiter 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:46.040 being so close together, they may look like a double planet. 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:48.280 If you have a telescope, you should be able to 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:51.160 see both planets and their larger moons in the same 0:02:51.200 --> 0:02:54.160 field of view, but they'll be fairly clear even through 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:59.040 binoculars and visible to the naked eye. The Great Conjunction 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:01.799 will be visible across Earth, though the timing will depend 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:05.520 on your location and latitude. The best viewing prospects are 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:08.799 near the equator, though those in the northern hemisphere will 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:11.760 have a shorter viewing window before the planet's set beyond 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:15.360 the horizon. For American viewers, the best time to observe 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:18.359 this maybe twilight. You can look for them anywhere from 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:23.320 December seventeen th December, though the closest approach is December one. 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:27.000 And even though we had a very long wait to 0:03:27.040 --> 0:03:29.600 see this event, it's going to happen again on March 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:39.840 fift a relatively short sixty years from now. Today's episode 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:42.440 was written by Valerie Stymach and produced by Tyler Clay. 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:44.720 For more and less amounts of other topics, visit hous 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:47.080 to forks dot com. Brain Stuff is production of I 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:49.880 heart Radio. Or more podcasts my heart Radio visit the 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:52.600 iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:53.480 your favorite shows.