What is the Great Conjunction 2020?

A great conjunction is a conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn, when both the planets are going to appear closest together within the sky. Great conjunctions, named "great" for being the rarest and one among the brightest and closest on the average of the conjunctions between "naked eye" planets (i.e. not counting the rarer conjunctions involving the ice giants as they were too dim to be discovered until after the invention of the telescope), occur approximately every 20 years when Jupiter "overtakes" Saturn in its orbit.

The ‘Great Conjunction’ of our solar system’s two largest planets, Jupiter and Saturn, will take place on Monday, December 21, and will be visible from 6:30pm to 7:30pm in India. Jupiter and Saturn regularly pass one another , as often as once every 20 years, but what makes this year’s conjunction special is that it's for the primary time in nearly 400 years that the two planets will be this close to one another.

In 1610, Italian astronomer Galileo pointed his telescope to the night sky, discovering the four moons of Jupiter – Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. In that same year, Galileo also discovered an odd oval surrounding Saturn, which later observations determined to be its rings. These discoveries changed how people understood the far reaches of our universe.

Thirteen years later, in 1623, the solar system’s two giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn, traveled together across the sky. Jupiter trapped to and passed Saturn, in an astronomical event referred to as a “Great Conjunction.”

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) has said the closest alignment will appear just a tenth of a degree apart and last for a couple of days, and skywatchers on earth are going to be able to see the conjunction with the eye .

The event is additionally occurring, purely out of coincidence, on the day of the solstice and can be visible an hour after sunset within the south-western sky. The conjunction is popularly cited as ‘Christmas Star’, which, in line with the Bible, was the star that guided the three wise men to baby Jesus.

The ‘Christmas Star’, or the ‘Star of Bethlehem’, is believed to be the conjunction of the two gas giants and it had been first viewed in 1623. Astronomers have long debated the existence of such a star but it's theorized that in the year 7 BC, Jupiter and Saturn had three conjunctions were in the same constellation, which could explain what the star actually was.

Apart from being very fist time in nearly 400 years the planetary giants are this near to each other , this can be also the first time in 800 years that the alignment will occur at night.

Apart from the Great conjunction, 2020 has been witness to many celestial phenomena just like the Geminids meteor shower, the total solar eclipse and therefore the Ursoid meteor shower.