Venus and Jupiter have appeared closer and closer together since last winter from our perch here on Earth. On Tuesday night, the two planets reached their closest point, or “conjunction,” appearing to almost converge in the night sky, and will look nearly as close on Wednesday night. The brightest celestial bodies after the sun and the moon, they are visible to the naked eye on a clear night.
Though they appear to be almost touching during a conjunction, “they will not, in fact, be anywhere near each other,” Alan MacRobert, senior editor of Sky & Telescope magazine, explained to Newsweek ahead of the event. “At the time of the conjunction, Venus will be 48 million miles away from Earth, and Jupiter will be 565 million miles away,” he added. “Looks in astronomy are deceiving.”
Nevertheless, Tuesday’s event was captured by observers around the world and shared on social media. Sky & Telescope also rounded up several images to share widely, on Twitter and in its online gallery.