Stargazers could well be in for a treat tomorrow tonight as a rare phenomenon will take place which will see two plants Jupiter and Venus lighting up the sky.
The phenomenon will see the two brightest planets in the solar system appear unusually close together, with astronomists saying they will be roughly two thirds of a full moon’s width apart from each other.
The spectacle is only a mere illusion however caused by the line-of-sight. Astronomists say the two planets are actually hundreds of millions of miles apart.
The phenomenon has many excited including Editor of Astronomy Ireland magazine David Moore, who said: “You do not need telescopes to see this ‘double planet’ but we will be able to show the disks of both worlds in the same field of view, something I have never seen in a lifetime’s viewing. The two planets will be spectacularly close all week, with Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday being the best, and Tuesday night is the very closest.” “We expect this to be the most spectacular sight of the year, even better than the solar eclipse seen in March, and the total eclipse of the Moon due in September, so we are urging everyone to look in the West after sunset,” Moore said.
“As these are the brightest objects in the night sky, after the Moon, this event can be seen with the naked eye from anywhere in Ireland.”
It is understood that Venus is now just over 90 million kilometres away from Earth and Jupiter is almost 900 million kilometres away. Although tomorrow night the two planets will appear in a direct line of sight apart.
The event is a rather significant one as it will not be seen again until 2019 at the earliest.