Jupiter and Venus conjunction: Celestial dance reaches high point

Jupiter and Venus came in conjunction on the night sky in Hyderabad and reached extremely close in proximity to each other

Hyderabad: The celestial dance between Jupiter and Venus reached a high point on Thursday, when both the planets on the night sky in Hyderabad came in conjunction and reached extremely close in proximity to each other.

While amateur astronomers in Hyderabad were tracking the two planets steadily moving towards each other in the last few days, from Friday onwards, however, both the planets will start to move away from each other.

From Earth, both the planets may appear very close. However, in reality, the actual distance between is pretty huge. “Although these planets appear very near to each other when observed through bare eyes or telescopes on Thursday, in reality Venus and Jupiter were at a distance of 65,94,90,000 km (65.94 Crore Km) to each other,” says Director, Planetary Society, India, N Sri Raghu Nandan Kumar said.

Highlighting the importance of the celestial event, Raghu Nandan says, “Venus orbits Sun with its path located inside the Earth’s orbit. Whereas Jupiter orbits Sun with its path located far away from Earth beyond Mars. So, appearance of the two celestial bodies together on Thursday was special”.

From Friday till the March end, amateur astronomers can still spot Venus and Jupiter. “As days pass by, from sunset to 8 pm, people will be able to see Venus and Jupiter moving apart in the sky. While Jupiter will not be visible after this month, Venus will continue to be visible on the evening sky towards west till August,” Raghu adds.