Podcast | Great gig in the sky: What Jupiter, Saturn Great Conjunction means

Jupiter completes one orbit of the Sun once every 12 years. In the conjunction of December 21, Jupiter will overtake the slower-moving Saturn. Their visual convergence is called the great conjunction. This happens every two decades, the last being on May 31, 2000. The pairing appears too close to the sun to be seen. Jupiter and Saturn don’t usually get as close as they are going to be on December 21, 2020 between 6:25 and 7:40 pm. Jupiter and Saturn will come the closest to one another where they will be 0.1 degrees apart. This was last observed in 1623 and will only take place in 2080.

Listen to The Federal’s podcast here: Venkataraghavan Srinivasan talks to astrophycist Niruj Mohan Ramanujam.