CBS News
Originally Posted: December 20, 2020
A rare celestial event may be the only holiday light show North Texans were focused on Monday night, Dec 21: The two largest planets in our solar system aligned in a way that hasn’t been seen for centuries.
Jupiter and Saturn appear to merge into a single source of light, an astronomical conjunction.
“Jupiter moves faster because it’s closer to the sun, and it’s catching up with Saturn,” said Dr. Krista Smith, an assistant professor of physics at SMU. “And so we will see them together in the sky.”
The last visible conjunction this close happened nearly 800 years ago.
“It’s pretty neat to be able to see something that’s rare for us to be able to see,” said Melissa Lambert, who brought her daughter out to Veterans Park in Arlington for a glimpse of the cosmic marvel.
“I got a telescope for Christmas and my mom let me unwrap it early because we wanted to see the planets,” her daughter Helen said. READ MORE