Jupiter and Venus shine as they reach conjunction Monday, Tuesday
Our solar system's two brightest planets, Venus and Jupiter, are cuddling up close together this weekend and will reach their point of greatest conjunction - that is, simply, nearness in the sky - just after sunset on Monday and Tuesday evenings. The kissing planets should be easy to spot in the western sky after the sun goes down. They'll only be 1.5 degrees apart, or about the width of your finger at arm's length.
"Venus will shine with a dazzling white light, while Jupiter glows with a steady golden hue," said Jim Todd, the director of space science education at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. "You won't need a telescope. These cosmic gems are visible to the naked eye, even from bright city locations" like Portland and Vancouver.
A space traveler able to observe each planet from nearby couldn't miss how different the two really are. Venus is Earth's nearest planetary neighbor (between 24 million and 162 million miles away, depending on where it and Earth are in our respective orbits) and just about Earth-sized. Venus is sometimes called "the greenhouse planet" because it's wrapped in a heat-trapping atmosphere of carbon monoxide that's topped with sulfuric acid clouds. Surface temperature reaches approximately 870 degrees - making Venus the hottest planet in the solar system - and the atmospheric pressure on the ground is 93 times that of Earth.
Remarkably, a few space probes have managed to penetrate Venus' forbidding atmosphere, and a small handful have successfully landed on the surface. But none lasted longer than two hours before succumbing to the heat and pressure.
IF YOU GO
What: OMSI Star Party
When: 9 p.m. to midnight Saturday
Where: L.L. "Stub" Stewart State Park (state Highway 26 west from Portland, turn right on OR-47)
On the web:www.omsi.edu
Hundreds of millions of miles farther away is gigantic Jupiter, the fifth planet from the sun. Jupiter is known as a "gas giant" because, unlike rocky planets like Venus and Earth, it is composed almost entirely of dynamically churning gasses and liquids. Scientists are still puzzling over the size and composition of its nebulous innermost core.
Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system - if it were hollow, approximately 1,000 Earths could fit inside of it - and its enormous gravity keeps a whopping 101 moons in orbit (as well as a ring system that's much fainter than Saturn's and wasn't discovered until 1979). The largest four of those moons are known as Jupiter's "Galilean" moons because they were first observed by telescope pathfinder Galileo Galilei in 1610. Today, anyone with a clear view and decent binoculars should be able to get a good glimpse of the moons as they hug the planet. Different nights will reveal different moon positions, so checking and rechecking can give you a real-time sense of wonder at our active, moving universe.
The main thing Jupiter has in common with Venus is a highly reflective atmosphere that can offer excellent viewing even without binoculars. Right now, both planets are positioned to follow the sun over the western horizon within three hours of sunset, so that's your viewing window. Sunset on both June 8 and 9 will be just minutes before 9 p.m. Venus will remain in the western sky until about 11:30 p.m., when it drops below the horizon. Jupiter follows about 20 minutes later.
Also, keep an eye out for the planet Mercury, which will also be sparkling faintly and low over the horizon, positioned to the lower right of the main duo.
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