Jupiter coming closet to Earth on Friday
"On February 6, 2015, Jupiter comes closest to Earth on its opposition date, coming to within 404 million miles (650 million kilometers) of Earth. 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," read a government statement.
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 will be 11:50 PM I.S.T.
Jupiter is in Cancer constellation now, according to Sanjib Sen, Director, Positional Astronomy Centre, Kolkata and the planet will be 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 will be a phenomenon to watch in the night sky on February 6.
Birla Industrial & Technological Museum has made arrangements for viewing this astronomical event through telescope on Friday from 6 pm till 8 pm.
Along with sky observation, a multimedia presentation on ‘opposition of Jupiter’ will also be available for the visiting public.
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.
