Astronomically speaking, we are very small... and after watching Sports Science on Lionel Messi, the greatest soccer player in the world, angles and precision fascinate me even more when dealing with the incredible vastness of our solar system. Tonight and tomorrow night, Venus and Jupiter will be visible in the night sky in such unusual proximity that it is considered a decadal conjunction.The information for this post, including distances, angles, and pictures, are mostly coming from the National Graphic page found here entitled "Venus and Jupiter Get Bright and Tight in This Week's Sky".
The Sky by the Numbers
Venus will be around 56 million miles away from Earth. Jupiter, on the other hand, will be about 550 million miles away. However, Venus appears much brighter (6x's brighter to be exact) due to it's gaseous atmosphere even though it's only around 1/10 the size of Jupiter. The gases making up the atmosphere consist of mostly carbon dioxide and thick clouds of sulfuric acid, which help to provide for the planet's huge albedo, or ability to reflect light. The albedo of the moon is about 0.11-0.12, but only reflects about 7-8% of sunlight due to uneven surfaces such as mountain ranges and craters. Fresh snow on the ground has an albedo of about 0.8-0.9 and reflects about 85% of sunlight. Venus on the other hand, has an atmospheric albedo of 0.9 and reflects about 90% of sunlight. Now, imagine you are driving down the road and are blinded by a patch of ice or snow on the ground... then take that brightness and put it on an entire planet. That is why Venus, although only 10% the size of Jupiter, appears to be six times brighter.
These two planets, which have been gracing viewers as gorgeous night lights around sunset, tonight and tomorrow night will be less than half a degree apart from each other from earth's standpoint: a distance so close that at arms length, National Geographic says that one's pinky finger will cover both, and both will be view-able in the same lens of a backyard telescope.Later in the month on July 18th, a crescent moon in addition to Jupiter and Venus will all be visible at dusk in the width of about 3 fingers, or 4 degrees. It'll be an sight of astronomical proportions!
...Okay, yeah, that was bad.
Anyway, I hope everyone is having a fantastic summer! I will try to post more often as I get into a routine with this second summer session. Go Wolfpack!
