Are Venus and Venus the prettiest of the planets? Michaeleen Doucleff: A psychologist’s perspective on the feeling of awe
Venus is the prettiest of the planets because it’s the farthest from the moon in the sky. You will be able to see Uranus close to Venus with a telescope or binoculars, but if you are looking from a bright spot with no light pollution, you might not be able to see it.
As we get closer to nightfall, we will see a show of two planets in the solar system which will make many stargazers feel an emotion known as awe. NPR’s Michaeleen Doucleff has an explanation.
MICHAELEEN DOUCLEFF, BYLINE: Last night after dinner, I went outside to take care of our chickens, and I literally gasped. It’s so beautiful and I was happy about it. These two bright objects are so close to each other.
DOUCLEFF: They are the most prominent objects besides the moon in the sun. The American Museum of Natural History employs an astronomer named Jackaphine Faherty. She says, right now, Jupiter and Venus are doing a little dance.
Jackie Asher is a fictional character. There’s something happening in the sky. They have been up. They’ve been bright. For the past month they’ve been getting closer.
Try a new thing while you are looking up. Pause for a moment and focus on how extraordinary the universe is. Are these planets far away? How mysterious they are. And how small you are.
MICHELLE SHIOTA: And to the extent that you can look at that sky and think, wow, that’s big. That’s so much bigger than me. That’s so much bigger than my life and my problems, however real those problems are.
DOUCLEFF: That’s what I am calling it, michelle Shiota. She’s a psychologist at Arizona State University. She says that’s the feeling of awe, which gives us perspective and is humbling.
A Nighttime Kiss with Venetians and Julieter are Getting Close to Kissing for a Moment of Calm and Relaxation
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Last night, after dinner, I went outside to take care of our chickens. And I literally gasped. There were two objects that were close together in the sky. It was a sight to behold. I felt a tingle of joy and a moment of calm. I felt what psychologists call awe – an emotion that can relieve stress and calm nerves. Who doesn’t need that?
“They’ve gotten close to kiss for a while,” says an astronomer at the American Museum of Natural History.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/03/01/1160382060/look-up-venus-and-jupiter-are-going-in-for-a-nighttime-kiss
The Venus-Jupiter “Conjunction”: The Moon’s Eye Seeing Through Its Phenomenology as it Darkens
In space the planets aren’t going to kiss. They are 400 million miles apart. That is more than four times the distance from the sun to us.
The astronomer call it the Venus-Jupiter “conjunction”. Venus and Jupiter are passing each other as they pass the sun. “The inner planets move a lot faster than the outer planets. So you get a lot of these like racetrack passes,” she says.
So, as the orbits pass, they’ll appear to be about .5 degrees apart from our earthly vantage point. The two planets will be separated by a piece of paper held up to the sky.
You can check back on Thursday night if you missed the event tonight. The two planets will still seem quite close, continuing their celestial dance. They’ll return to their arms length soon.
Night sky lovers can typically spot a smattering of a few planets, but in late March, a stunning visual takes shape when five planets line up beneath the moon in a display sometimes called a planetary parade or alignment.
Hummels said that most of the alignment will be visible to the naked eye even in urban areas with light pollution. It can be seen across the northern and southern hemispheres.
The arrangement will be visible just underneath the crescent moon. To spot the display, Hummels recommended heading out to a place with a good view of the western horizon just after sunset, when streaks of the colorful sunset still remain and the sky has turned dark blue but not yet black. (Tip: Those living far to the north should look slightly southwest, while those in the Southern Hemisphere should gaze northwest, Hummels said.)
Topping off the planetary parade will be Mars, sitting in a straight line up from Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Uranus and the moon. It’s easy to pick out because of its signature orange tint, Hummels added.
The Alignment of the Sky and Its Effects on Planetary, Solar, and Atmospheric Phenomena
The entire alignment will cover 70 degrees of the sky. Hummels suggested using your thumb or closed fist, extended away from the body, to measure degrees in the sky. A thumb is more than 10 degrees long, while a fist is less than 1 degree.
A planetary alignment of this kind may show up every few years, but it is possible to catch planets all together in an even smaller patch of the sky — those occurrences are just more rare.
“It’s kind of like when your car’s odometer shows a bunch of numbers — like it reaches 44,444,” he said. “It’s cool and unusual. It just doesn’t really mean anything.”
Fascinating celestial phenomena often decorate the night sky, he added, such as when Jupiter and Venus appeared within half a degree of each other this month.
On October 14, sky watchers can expect to see a “ring of fire” eclipse. And, in April 2024, a total solar eclipse will blot out the sun midday for many in the United States.