February 17, 2026 03:18 am (IST)
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Jupiter comes closest to Earth tonight
New Delhi/Kolkata, Feb 6 (IBNS): Planet Jupiter will come closest to Earth on Friday night coming to within 404 million miles (650 million kilometers) of planet.
Earth passes more or less between the sun and Jupiter, placing Jupiter opposite the sun in our sky. Astronomers call this event an opposition of Jupiter. The 2015 opposition is Jupiter’s closest until 2019.
The “Opposition of Jupiter” takes place approximately after every 13 months. All the four Galilean Satellites of Jupiter will become brighter and the planet will be visible from just after sunset though the exact time of opposition is 11:50 PM I.S.T.
Jupiter is in Cancer constellation now, according to Sanjib Sen, Director, Positional Astronomy Centre, Kolkata and the planet is having an angular diameter of 45 Arc-second.
The moon will also be brighter after the full moon day of Feb 3 and the sight of Jupiter is really a phenomenon to watch in the night sky on Friday.
Birla Industrial & Technological Museum in Kolkata made arrangements for viewing this astronomical event through telescope on Friday from 6 pm to 8 pm. Along with sky observation, a multimedia presentation on ‘opposition of Jupiter’ was also be available for the visiting public.
A good number of people assembled there to watch Jupiter, the biggest planet of our solar system.
There was a huge gathering at BITM even after the stipulated time of 8 PM as people from all walks of life waited patiently for their turn to watch Jupiter with its three Galilean satellite out of four visible Friday night.
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