Have you noticed in the past week two dots in the sky? Well, those two dots in the sky were the planets Venus and Jupiter. These two orbs were nearly touching each other less than 1 degree in the night sky. When two planets are this close together, this is called a conjunction. Conjunctions happen when two planets, a planet and a star or a planet and the moon, appear from Earth to be nearly touching each other. Unlike any other conjunctions, this one was a bit different. 

According to NASA ambassador, Tony Rice he said if you were to stretch your hand and put your pinkie in between these planets, it wouldn’t fit because of how close they are. He said conjunctions don’t get this close very often. But even though they look like they are very close on Earth, they are actually separated millions of miles in space.

The two planets made a run towards each other on Wednesday and Thursday night of last week before their next conjunction which is May 2024 according to Noah Petro, a scientist at NASA. Venus glowed brighter than Jupiter because it is farther away. They were closest at midnight which was half a degree apart according to Petro. The planets will eventually move away from each other. Jupiter will be visible in the night sky most of March, while Venus will rise higher into the sky throughout April.

The next time these orbs will be this close again will be February 7, 2032, according to Tony Rice. Even though we won’t see them this close again till 2032, Jupiter and Mars will be this close again August 15, 2024.

Nathalie Martinez is a sophomore who is interested in astrology and space.

“I really enjoyed watching the conjunction. I thought it was cool and got some interesting pictures,” she said.