The 2020 winter solstice night will be accompanied by another cosmic event known as ‘the great conjunction,’ when Saturn and Jupiter will appear right next to each other.
Andrew Doughty/EyeEm via Getty Images and Jeff Dai/Stocktrek via Getty Images
The 2020 winter solstice is also when Saturn and Jupiter appear closest to each other for 60 years, Here’s what you need to know about both the events.
NASA’s Curiosity Rover takes a selfie on Mars in June, 2018.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Dr Rudi Kuhn, South African Astronomical Observatory
We’re not sure how the rings work or how they formed, but there are a few theories.
In 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft looked back toward the sun and captured this near-sunset view of the rugged, icy mountains and flat ice plains extending to Pluto’s horizon.
NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
Many people are still upset that Pluto was demoted from being a planet. But definitions of various celestial objects are fairly fluid. So whether it is an asteroid or moon or planet is up for debate.
Measuring in at 10,159 miles (16,350 kilometers) in width (as of April 3, 2017) Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is 1.3 times as wide as Earth.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Christopher Go
Little bits of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot seem to be flaking off. Is it a sign of the demise of this enigmatic red cloud, or just a consequence of atmospheric chaos we can’t see from above?
Exomoons orbiting an exoplanet outside our solar system.
Dotted Yeti/Shutterstock.com
A giant exomoon hundreds of times the size of Earth is revealing secrets about how giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn formed. They might also help astronomers find planets where life may thrive.
NASA’s Europa Clipper mission just got the green light - here’s what it could achieve.
With giant Saturn hanging in the blackness and sheltering Cassini from the Sun’s blinding glare, the spacecraft viewed the rings as never before.
NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Vahe Peroomian, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Although the rings of Saturn may look like a permanent fixture of the planet, they are ever-changing. New analyses of the rings reveal how and when they were made, from what and whether they’ll last.
Varied terrain on Europa.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute
The Great Red Spot has remained an essentially constant feature of Jupiter’s turbulent atmosphere for at least the past several hundred years. How can a storm persist for so long?
Enjoying the planets lined up in a row.
Derek Bruff/flickr
The five planets visible to the naked eye since ancient times are putting on a dazzling display this month, in a night-sky dance along with the Moon.
The colorful cloud belts dominate Jupiter’s southern hemisphere in this image captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill
Jupiter’s bands are one of its most striking features – and can be seen from Earth – but they only go so deep within the giant planet. Now scientists think they know why.
A moon shadow on Jupiter, the red planet now has a dozen more moons added to the list or such orbiting bodies.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
Now’s a great time to see Jupiter as it’s about to be the closest to Earth for some time. Time too to catch up with the latest on the Juno mission, exploring the largest planet in our Solar System.
Pentagon of vortices. Mosaic of infrared images of Jupiter’s south pole.
NASA/SWRI/JPL/ASI/INAF/IAPS
The Voyager space probes sent back some amazing images of the planets in the outer Solar System, and they’re still talking to Earth every day via Australia’s tracking station.
The raw images of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot taken this week by the Juno probe.
NASA/SwRI/MSSS
The images are in from the Juno probe’s closest flyby so far of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. Citizen scientists are now getting involved in processing those images.