September 19, 2026 09:24 am (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 find first adult T. Rex trackway—Here’s how fast the killer dinosaur moved
Mon, Sep 14 2026
ISRO’s ‘Naughty Boy’ delivers big win: GSLV-F17 launches EOS-05 in historic mission
Fri, Sep 04 2026
Look up, Kolkata! Telescope viewing, space shows and quiz coming to BITM this August
Wed, Aug 19 2026
What is Moon Base programme? NASA invites ISRO to join lunar mission
Wed, Aug 12 2026
24 hours after historic launch, Skyroot makes a bold claim about Vikram-1's success
Sun, Jul 19 2026