Breathtaking photos of Jupiter and Saturn’s ‘Christmas Star’ conjunction

Saturn, right, and Jupiter, with several of its moons, are pictured from the West Desert during the “Great Conjunction” on Monday, Dec. 21, 2020. Also dubbed the Christmas Star, the conjunction is the closest together the two planets have passed in Earth’s sky in nearly 400 years. | Spenser Heaps, Deseret News

Stargazers from around the world captured magnificent photos of the rare cosmic event.

On the night of the winter solstice, a rare cosmic event known as a planetary conjunction took place as two of our solar system’s biggest planets passed by one another.

During the conjunction, also referred to as the “Christmas Star,” Jupiter and Saturn appeared to unite for a few brief moments and shine as one bright double planet, while in reality the two planets were more than 400 million miles apart.

Stargazers, astronomers and photographers alike busted out their best cameras and telescopes to document the spectacular event. The Deseret News captured several photos from Utah’s West Desert that can be viewed in this gallery.

Here are a few of other images (via ScienceAlert.com):

Ed Piotrowski, the chief meteorologist for ABC-15 WPDE in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, posted this image of the planets on his Twitter account:

The #GreatConjunction of #Jupiter and #Saturn thru my telescope just after 6pm. 4 of Jupiter's moons; Europa, Ganymede, Io & Callisto, and Saturn's Titan moon visible. Stacked many images for more clarity and color. Nexstar Celestron 6SE with Nikon D750 attached. #scwx #ncwx pic.twitter.com/vzP2IAuFnS

— Ed Piotrowski (@EdPiotrowski) December 22, 2020

The NASA Earth official Twitter account posted a gorgeous image of the planets reflecting into a body of water — as well as Google’s cartoon of Saturn and Jupiter high-fiving:

Hey everyone, are you seeing this? It's in the sky and @GoogleDoodles! (And we look pretty cute in it!) @NASAMoon, can you tell what we're seeing? pic.twitter.com/i5PWegwSRm

— NASA Earth (@NASAEarth) December 21, 2020

Tom Kierein, an author and retired meteorologist, posted this lovely image of Jupiter, Saturn and Jupiter’s four largest moons on his Twitter account. According to Kierein, the photo was captured by Sajal Chakravorty in Melbourne, Australia:

Great Conjunction. Jupiter and it's 4 largest moons (550 million miles away) and Saturn (1 billion miles away). Telescope image from Melbourne, Australia by Sajal Chakravorty pic.twitter.com/q5971CTD4A

— Tom Kierein (@TomKierein) December 22, 2020

Matt Newey, a Utah-based photojournalist, posted this image of the conjunction reflecting into the Great Salt Lake on his Instagram account:

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A post shared by Matt Newey (@mattcnewey)

A Bay Area landscape photographer named Jim Tang captured this incredible image of the conjunction shining high above the San Francisco cityscape and shared it on Instagram:

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A post shared by Jim Tang (@thewxmann)

from Deseret News https://ift.tt/3mQUGxz