See the moon visit Jupiter in the sky on Friday (November 4)
On Friday, November 4, 2022, the moon will share the same right ascension with Jupiter in an astronomical arrangement called a conjunction. The more than half-illuminated 10-day-old moon will appear just two degrees south of the solar system’s largest planet.
At the same time, the moon and Jupiter will be in the constellation Fishing and will also make a pulse – the term astronomers use to describe a close approach between two objects in the sky, as observed by observers on Soil.
The rendezvous between the two will begin around 4:23 PM EDT (2023 GMT) and will become visible over the New York City skies in the evening around 6:06 PM EDT (2206 GMT) as the sky darkens, according to InTheSky.org. (opens in new tab)
Related: Full Moon November 2022: Full Beaver Blood Moon gets a total lunar eclipse
The Moon/Jupiter conjunction, which first appears 22 degrees above the southeast horizon, will peak at its highest point – 47 degrees above the southern horizon – at 9:58 PM EDT. The moon and Jupiter will remain visible until Saturday (Nov. 5) around 3:09 a.m., when they pass below seven degrees above the horizon in the west. (Your fist at arm’s length corresponds to about ten degrees in the sky.)
During the conjunction, the moon will have a magnitude of -12.5 and Jupiter a magnitude of -2.8, with the minus prefix indicating particularly bright objects in the sky above Earth.
The conjunction will be visible to the naked eye or binoculars from areas of dark and clear sky. However, the close coupling of the moon and Jupiter is still too far apart to be viewed with a telescope.
Even though the moon and Jupiter will appear close together in the night sky, they will remain separated by great distances in the night sky. solar system. The fifth planet from the sun, Jupiter is still 365 million miles (588 million kilometers) from Earth at its nearest and at its farthest the gas giant is 601 million miles (968 million km) away.
Because of this great distance, the visibility of the moon and Jupiter is not indicative of their true size. Despite being fainter, the gas giant planet greatly shrinks the moon. To illustrate, it would take 50 moons to fill Earth’s volume, but it would take about 1,300 Earths to fill Jupiter’s volume. That means it would take as many as 65,000 moons to fill the gas giant’s volume.
NASA adds that if the Earth were the size of a grape, the moon would be the size of a pea and the size of a basketball.
Jupiter is not only the largest planet in the solar system, but also dominates the solar system in terms of mass. Though made up of dense gas, Jupiter’s mass is estimated to be at least twice that of all the other planets that orbit the sun together.
The next major astronomical event for Jupiter will take place on Saturday, December 7, when it faces the sun in the sky, an arrangement called opposition.
Editor’s Note: If you take a photo of the moon and Jupiter and want to share it with Space.com readers, please send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to [email protected]
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