The moon will meet up with Saturn, the solar system’s second-largest planet, on Sunday (Dec. 17) when the 2 celestial bodies make an in depth approach.
The moon will probably be almost half-illuminated in the course of the close approach, and at around the identical time, the 2 celestial bodies will share the identical right ascension (the celestial equivalent of longitude) in an arrangement astronomers call a conjunction.
From Recent York City, the rendezvous between the moon and Saturn will probably be visible from the time the moon rises around midday, in accordance with Within the Sky. Saturn will probably be simply to the appropriate of the five-day-old moon, with each celestial objects situated within the constellation of Aquarius in the course of the meet-up.
The arrangement between the moon and the gas giant planet will probably be far more visible after sunset, until just before they set to the southwest at around 9:48 p.m. EST (0248 GMT on Dec. 18). This implies there may be time to identify the 2 bodies after the sun vacates the sky when it sets at 4:29 p.m. EST (2129 GMT).
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Through the conjunction, the moon may have a magnitude of -11.5, with the minus prefix indicating a very vivid object within the sky over Earth. Saturn will probably be much dimmer with a magnitude of 0.7.
Through the close approach, the moon will probably be over 100 times larger than Saturn within the night sky. After all, this is solely an effect of our perspective from Earth, because the moon is far closer to our planet, which is the third planet from the sun, than Saturn, which is the sixth planet within the solar system.
Saturn is currently around 930 million miles (1.5 billion kilometers) from Earth, which is around 10 times the gap between Earth and the sun, and signifies that light would take around 1 hour and 23 minutes to travel from our planet, past Mars and Jupiter and out to Saturn.
In contrast, the gap to the moon from Earth is currently just around 230,000 miles (370,000 kilometers), and a lightweight signal sent from Earth would take just 1.2 seconds to travel between the 2. Because of this the Earth/moon system because it currently stands would fit into the present distance between Saturn and Earth around 4,068 times.
If the moon and Saturn were placed at the identical distance from Earth, the moon can be much smaller than Saturn, with the gas giant easily ruling the night sky over our planet as an alternative of the moon.
The moon has a diameter of around 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers), a couple of quarter of the diameter of Earth, while Saturn has a width of around 72,300 miles (116,500 kilometers), making it about 9.5 times wider than Earth. Which means it will take not less than 34 bodies the scale of our moon to create a belt that stretches across the equator of Saturn.
When considering the difference in volume between the moon and Saturn, the difference in size between the 2 bodies becomes much more striking. It will take around 760 Earths to fill the amount of Saturn, and it will take around 50 moons to fill the amount of Earth. Which means it will take around 3,800 moons to occupy the amount of Saturn.
Should you are hoping to catch a take a look at the moon along side Saturn, our guides to the best telescopes and best binoculars are each an incredible place to begin. Telescopes can give you an incredible close-up view of distant objects, while
Should you’re trying to snap photos of those celestial objects or the night sky usually, try our guide on how you can photograph the moon, how you can photograph the planets, in addition to our best cameras for astrophotography and best lenses for astrophotography.