Jupiter to come closest to Earth in 70 years on September 26
By now, we all know about NASA’s famous Perseverance Rover that has been orbiting and observing Mars for a few years now. But not many know that NASA has another spacecraft named Juno, that has solely dedicated itself to explore the largest planet in the solar system, Jupiter, along with its moons, for six years now. And now, thanks to Juno, NASA has discovered that Jupiter will soon approach Earth on 26th September, the closest it has come in last seven decades. In fact, official reports from NASA suggest that stargazers can actually expect to have excellent views of the giant planet on the night of 26th September when it reaches opposition.
In case you are wondering what opposition means, here’s a sneak peek. From the point of view of the Earth, opposition occurs when an astronomical object (such as another planet in this case) rises in the east, as and when the Sun sets in the west. This in turn places the celestial object and the Sun on opposite sides of the Earth.
Now, in case of Jupiter, this opposition happens every 13 months, thus making it appear larger and brighter than any other time during the year. However, this time, regardless of the opposition, Jupiter is also all set to make its nearest approach to the Earth, making the instance doubly special.
Okay, so what does this really mean? This simply means that Jupiter’s closest proximity to the Earth is not going to coincide with its opposition. Why? Because both the planets do not revolve around the Sun in perfect circles, meaning, they will pass one another at different times and distances around the year.
So, how close is too close? Well, it turns out, Jupiter will be approximately 365 million miles away from Earth, which in astronomical terms is quite close. To put things in perspective, Jupiter, when farthest away from the Earth is around 600 million miles away. Now you can get the difference, don’t you?
If you are excited to catch a glimpse of Jupiter, here’s what you need to do. Be prepared with a pair of good binoculars (of course telescope would work better!) and if the sky is clear, you can really be fortunate enough to see the central band of Jupiter, along with three or four of its Galilean satellites (moons!) towards the eastern horizon. The people who own a telescope can even view the giant planet’s Great Red Spot.
For those unaware, Jupiter has 79 moons in total, out of which 53 are named. However, the four largest moons, namely, Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto are together known as the Galilean satellites as they were named after Galileo Galilei, the Italian astronomer who first observed them in 1610.
Interestingly, the spacecraft Juno is now operating beyond its initial lifespan and will be on Jupiter till 2025. The scientist community believes that studying Jupiter closely will lead to major breakthroughs regarding the formation of the solar system.