Don’t Miss: Prime Viewing of Mars-Jupiter Conjunction

Jupiter and Mars

Superimposed Hubble images of Jupiter and Mars. Credit: Jupiter: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center) and M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley), Mars: NASA/ESA, J. Bell (Cornell U.) and M. Wolff (SSI)

Most stargazers will have a prime viewing opportunity to observe the planets Jupiter and Mars draw incredibly close in the predawn sky on the nights of May 27-30.

Approximately 45 minutes before local sunrise, the two planets will appear 20 degrees or so above the horizon in the eastern-southeastern sky, against the constellation Pisces. This Mars-Jupiter conjunction will be visible, barring local weather issues, in the predawn hours each morning from May 27 to May 30. The conjunction will peak at 3:57 a.m. CDT on May 29.

“Planetary conjunctions traditionally have been more the stuff of astrology than serious astronomy, but they never fail to impress during observations, particular when the gas giants are involved,” said Mitzi Adams, an astronomer and researcher at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

During such a conjunction, two planets appear close together in Earth’s night sky. In the case of Earth’s solar system, conjunctions happen frequently because our sister planets travel around the Sun in a fairly similar ecliptic plane, often appearing to meet in our night sky despite being millions of miles away from one another.

Jupiter and Mars Conjunction May 2022

Sky chart showing how Jupiter and Mars will appear in the pre-sunrise sky on May 28-30. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

At their closest point, Mars and Jupiter will be separated by no more than 0.6 degrees. Astronomers routinely use degrees to measure the angular distance between objects in the night sky. To observers on the ground, the distance between the two planets will be no more than the width of a raised finger, with Mars appearing just to the lower right of the massive gas giant.

It might be necessary to use binoculars or a telescope to spot Mars clearly, said Alphonse Sterling, a NASA astronomer who works with Adams at Marshall. But he noted that observers should have no trouble identifying Jupiter, even with unaided eyes.

“We anticipate Jupiter will shine at a magnitude of -2.2,” Sterling said. “Mars, in comparison, will have a magnitude of just 0.7.”

The brightness of celestial bodies is measured according to their magnitude value, a number that decreases as brightness increases. A negative value indicates the planet or moon is easy to see in the night sky, even with ambient light from one’s surroundings.

Mars and Jupiter are millions of miles away from us, of course – more than 136 million miles will separate Earth and Mars at the time of the conjunction, with Jupiter nearly four times further away. Even so, Jupiter will be the far brighter of the two. With its planetary diameter of around 4,200 miles, Mars is dwarfed by the massive Jovian giant, which has a diameter of about 89,000 miles. Being so much smaller, Mars reflects far less sunlight.

Mars also orbits the Sun more quickly, spinning eastward in our night sky fast enough to leave its lumbering gas-giant counterpart behind. Mars will catch up to Jupiter again and pass it during another conjunction in August 2024.

Adams and Sterling look forward to spotting the planetary conjunction.

“It’s thrilling to look up and recognize that these two worlds represent the breadth of NASA’s planned and potential goals for science and exploration,” Adams said. “As NASA prepares to send the first human explorers to the planet Mars, the possibilities could be virtually limitless for groundbreaking science discoveries among Jupiter’s fascinating moons.”

“This conjunction brings together two vastly different worlds, which both hold incredible promise to help us better understand our solar system, humanity’s place in the cosmos, and where we may be headed as a species,” Sterling added.

“Get outside before sunrise on May 29 and see them for yourself – and imagine all we’ve yet to learn from them,” he added.

Enjoy this celestial event as you watch the skies!

4 Comments on "Don’t Miss: Prime Viewing of Mars-Jupiter Conjunction"

  1. Babu G. Ranganathan | May 28, 2022 at 8:13 am | Reply

    Babu G. Ranganathan*
    (B.A. Bible/Biology)

    POSSIBLY MILLIONS OF TONS OF VOLCANIC EARTH SOIL REACHED MARS (Newsweek)

    A Newsweek article of September 21, 1998, p.12 mentions the high possibility of Earth life on Mars because of millions of tons of Earth soil ejected into space from ancient volcanic explosions. “We think there’s about 7 million tons of earth soil sitting on Mars”, says USC scientist Kenneth Nealson. “You have to consider the possibility that if we find life on Mars, it could have come from the Earth” [Weingarten, T., Newsweek, September 21, 1998, p.12]. This may also explain why life forms may exist on Venus, again because they originated from Earth.

    In the Earth’s past there was powerful volcanic activity which could have easily spewed dirt and rocks containing microbes and life into outer space which not only could have eventually reached Mars but also ended up traveling in orbit through space that we now know as meteors, comets, and asteroids. This would mean life forms found in meteorites originated from Earth in the first place.

    Secular scientists have a different explanation from creationist scientists on the volcanic eruptions of the Earth’s past. Creation scientists believe, as Genesis teaches, that as the fountains of the deep were opened to release water for the world-wide flood the force of the eruptions could have indeed spewed great amounts of earth soil into space.

    Life could not have evolved. A partially evolved cell would quickly disintegrate under the effects of random forces of the environment, especially without the protection of a complete and fully functioning cell membrane. A partially evolved cell cannot wait millions of years for chance to make it complete and living! In fact, it couldn’t have even reached the partially evolved state.

    Having the right conditions and raw material for life do not mean that life can originate or arise by chance. Stanley Miller, in his famous experiment in 1953, showed that individual amino acids (the building blocks of life) could come into existence by chance. But, it’s not enough just to have amino acids. The various amino acids that make-up life must link together in a precise sequence, just like the letters in a sentence, to form functioning protein molecules. If they’re not in the right sequence the protein molecules won’t work. It has never been shown that various amino acids can bind together into a sequence by chance to form protein molecules. Even the simplest cell is made up of many millions of various protein molecules.

    The probability of just an average size protein molecule arising by chance is 10 to the 65th power. Mathematicians have said any event in the universe with odds of 10 to 50th power or greater is impossible! The late great British scientist Sir Frederick Hoyle calculated that the odds of even the simplest cell coming into existence by chance is 10 to the 40,000th power! How large is this? Consider that the total number of atoms in our universe is 10 to the 82nd power.
    Also, what many don’t realize is that Miller had a laboratory apparatus that shielded and protected the individual amino acids the moment they were formed, otherwise the amino acids would have quickly disintegrated and been destroyed in the mix of random energy and forces involved in Miller’s experiment.

    Miller’s experiment produced equally both left-handed and right-handed amino acids, but all living things strictly require only left-handed amino acids. If a right-handed amino acid gets into the chain the protein won’t work.

    There is no innate chemical tendency for the various amino acids to bond with one another in a sequence. Any one amino acid can just as easily bond with any other. The only reason at all for why the various amino acids bond with one another in a precise sequence in the cells of our bodies is because they’re directed to do so by an already existing sequence of molecules found in our genetic code.

    Of course, once you have a complete and living cell then the genetic code and biological machinery exist to direct the formation of more cells, but how could life or the cell have naturally originated when no directing code and mechanisms existed in nature? Read my Internet article: HOW FORENSIC SCIENCE REFUTES ATHEISM.

    Visit my newest Internet site: THE SCIENCE SUPPORTING CREATION

    Author of popular Internet article, TRADITIONAL DOCTRINE OF HELL EVOLVED FROM GREEK ROOTS

    * I have had the privilege of being recognized in the 24th edition of Marquis “Who’s Who In The East” for my writings on religion and science, and I have given successful lectures (with question and answer time afterwards) defending creation from science before evolutionist science faculty and students at various colleges and universities.

    • I suppose it’s possible for microbes to reach Mars from Earth but they would be dormant during the trip. Once the organism reaches a suitable environment on Mars or Venus, it would reproduce and eventually die. Over many generations, random, mutations would occur. If the mutations maintain the viability of the organism, they are passed on to the next generation. If not… die. It’s not that complicated.

      Also, if life could not have evolved, as you said, why not just originate the organisms on Venus and Mars and skip the volcano trip altogether?

  2. Creation isn’t science. May as well be political science or gender studies. Shameful nonsense.

  3. Bradford Orin Riney | May 30, 2022 at 7:22 pm | Reply

    Just maybe God is an Evolutionary Biologist.

Leave a Reply to Reality Cancel reply

Email address is optional. If provided, your email will not be published or shared.