June 02, 2025 05:03 pm (IST)
Follow us:
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.
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.
Support objective journalism for a small contribution.
Latest Headlines
Scientists predict life on Earth will end due to oxygen scarcity in one billion years: Study
Tue, May 13 2025
NASA astronaut Don Pettit returns to Earth on his 70th birthday
Sun, Apr 20 2025
Indian astronaut-designate Shubhanshu Shukla set to fly to International Space Station in May
Fri, Apr 18 2025
Singing sensation Katy Perry, five other women complete their historic 11-minute tour to space
Tue, Apr 15 2025
American singing sensation Katy Perry among five all-women crew members to fly into space in Blue Origin rocket today
Mon, Apr 14 2025