Jupiter will be approaching very closely to the planet Earth. According to several reports, this has not happened since 1963. To those who might not know, Jupiter is actually the largest planet in our own solar system. Imagine how big would it look later.
In the furthest measurement, the distance between Jupiter and the planet Earth would be a total of 965.6 million kilometers. That is indeed very far away from each other. This rarely happened incident would make the distance rise to almost half than usual.
Picture: Space
Other than to be appearing the closest to the planet Earth compared to usual, the arrangement of both the planets will also be in opposition. According to the Space Explored website, “opposition happens when an astronomical object is placed on the opposite side of Earth as the Sun, where you can draw a straight line connecting them”. This explains the bigger and brighter appearance.
Adam Kobelski who is a research astrophysicist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama stated, “With good binoculars, the banding (at least the central band) and three or four of the Galilean satellites (moons) should be visible”.
For those who are doing any astronomical event, it is best to be at a high elevation in a dark clear-sky area. This would help you to get the best view of the planet. In addition to that, places that are free from as much light pollution as possible would be great too.
Sources: Space Explored, NASA.
