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Jupiter and Saturn are getting closer than in centuries to form a ‘poinsettia’
“If you look west on December 21 just after sunset, you should see that Jupiter and Saturn are getting closer than they have ever been in the life of this planet,” said Jackie Faherty, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History. . This Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn has been called the “Christmas Star,” not only because of its festive timing, but also because of the connections that some experts theorize that historical events may have with astronomical phenomena from the past. “What happens in astronomy, which I think is really cool, is that we can go through historical texts and find out when someone has said something in a story or folklore, that we can link back to an astronomical event,” says they. “A biblical story told around Christmas is about three wise men led by a star.” Faherty explains that because the atmosphere tends to distort the way things appear, if 2 things are close together in the sky, they can look like one bright spot. “In this case, the idea of the star of Bethlehem may very well have just been a great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, which is bright and brilliant and no one would miss it.” The next time you can expect a Jupiter & Saturn Conjuction to come up against this is in the year 2080, and then again until 2417, so you may want to catch it while you can.