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From left, planet Venus, the Moon and planet Jupiter are seen in the early morning sky photographed near Salgotarjan, 109 km northeast of Budapest in 2019. They will appear together in the western sky at dusk in the coming week.Peter Komka/The Associated Press
For ancient sky watchers, a close meeting of planets in the night sky might be taken as a sign of big events about to happen down on Earth. Today the planets no longer carry such associations, but the sight of brilliant objects gathering in the heavens on a clear night can still command our attention.
The coming week offers the next such opportunity, when the moon, Venus and Jupiter are set to appear together in the western sky at dusk. With the exception of the sun, they are typically the three brightest astronomical objects that can be seen from Earth. When all three are all grouped together in the same part of the sky, the sight is hard to miss and worth taking in if the weather co-operates.
Both Jupiter and Venus have been visible since January as a pair of bright lights in the western sky right after dark. Venus is the brighter of the two and closer to the horizon. It appears shortly after the sun sets (about 6 p.m. for most of Canada) and sets about two hours later. Jupiter is higher up and more to the left, forming a slanting line with Venus that points down toward the position of the sun below the horizon.
Next week the moon steps into the picture as part of its monthly trip around the Earth. It will first appear on Feb. 21 as a slender crescent about as far below Venus as Jupiter is above it. After one night it will have pulled up alongside Jupiter, forming a close pair.
By the 23rd, the moon will be much higher, though still located along the same slanting line drawn between the two planets.
On each of those nights a cloudless sky and an unobstructed horizon will be key to enjoying the heavenly spectacle. But there is no need to drive away from city lights. All three objects are easily bright enough to be seen in a busy downtown sky, as long as nothing is blocking the view.
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Jupiter
Feb. 21
Feb. 22
Moon
Feb. 22
Venus
Feb. 22
Feb. 21
Moon
Feb. 21
MOON AND PLANETS
Look west-southwest at dusk to see the crescent moon march past Venus and Jupiter between Feb. 21 and 23. The moon will appear especially close to Jupiter on the evening of the 22nd. In reality, all three celestial bodies are widely spaced along the same line of sight.
HORIZON, LOOKING WEST
*For illustrative purposes only.
What’s happening?
Jupiter
Mars
Line of sight
Moon
Venus
The Sun
Earth
Mercury
Orbit paths
*Planets and orbits are not to scale.
THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: THESKYLIVE.COM
Jupiter
Feb. 21
Feb. 22
Moon
Feb. 22
Venus
Feb. 22
Feb. 21
Moon
Feb. 21
MOON AND PLANETS
Look west-southwest at dusk to see the crescent moon march past Venus and Jupiter between Feb. 21 and 23. The moon will appear especially close to Jupiter on the evening of the 22nd. In reality, all three celestial bodies are widely spaced along the same line of sight.
HORIZON, LOOKING WEST
*For illustrative purposes only.
What’s happening?
Jupiter
Mars
Line of sight
Moon
Venus
The Sun
Earth
Mercury
Orbit paths
*Planets and orbits are not to scale.
THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: THESKYLIVE.COM
Jupiter
Feb. 21
Feb. 22
Moon
Feb. 22
Venus
Feb. 22
Feb. 21
Moon
Feb. 21
MOON AND PLANETS
Look west-southwest at dusk to see the crescent moon march past
Venus and Jupiter between Feb. 21 and 23. The moon will appear
especially close to Jupiter on the evening of the 22nd. In reality, all
three celestial bodies are widely spaced along the same line of sight.
HORIZON, LOOKING WEST
*For illustrative purposes only.
What’s happening?
Jupiter
Mars
Line of sight
Moon
Venus
The Sun
Earth
Mercury
Orbit paths
*Planets and orbits are not to scale.
THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: THESKYLIVE.COM
When celestial objects converge in this way it creates the impression of a real-life meet-up in space. But this is an illusion. In reality all three objects are widely separated from each other along a common line of sight.
The moon, which orbits Earth, is nearest, with an average distance of about 385,000 kilometres. Next is Venus, currently about 213 million kilometres away, which is more than 550 times the distance to the moon. Jupiter is currently about four times further than that, at a distance of 847 million kilometres from Earth.
Anyone used to looking at the classic textbook view of the solar system with the sun at the centre and the planets strung out in a line may wonder how a planet like Venus, which is closer to the sun than Earth, can appear alongside Jupiter, which is one of the solar system’s outer planets.
The answer has to do with the current placement of Venus and Jupiter on the two-dimensional plane the planets occupy as they orbit the sun. When we look toward Venus we are looking across its orbit, where it now sits on the opposite side of the sun from us, with Jupiter visible far in the background.
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All three objects are the subject of space exploration efforts now under way. The moon, in particular, has received plenty of attention thank to the Artemis I mission, which achieved lunar orbit and then returned to Earth late last year. Its follow-up, Artemis II, will be the first mission to take astronauts around the moon in more than 50 years. An announcement of the crew, including Canada’s first lunar astronaut, is expected in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, Japan’s ispace Inc. is aiming to be the first private company to put a lander on the moon. Its HAKUTO-R mission launched in December and is on track to enter lunar orbit and attempt a landing later this spring.
Venus is the objective of another private space mission, this one planned by California-based Rocket Lab, which last year said it could launch as early as May, 2023, with a backup launch window in early 2025.
But it’s Jupiter that will likely steal the limelight in April when the European Space Agency launches a flagship mission that will conduct the first detailed examination of Jupiter’s largest icy moons, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, since the end of NASA’s Galileo mission in 2003. All three of the moons are comparable or larger than our own moon, and each may harbour a hidden ocean concealed under a frozen icy crust.
Jupiter is so remote that the European spacecraft won’t reach its destination until 2031. That leaves plenty of time to gaze up at the brilliant planet alongside Venus and the moon – a modern-day portent of explorations to come.