Throughout May, the night sky has been filled with exciting phenomena, ranging from a meteor shower triggered by Halley's Comet to the first total lunar eclipse of 2022, and one more fascinating event is going to take place before the month ends.
During the lengthy Memorial Day weekend, Mars and Jupiter will make an extraordinarily close meeting in the pre-dawn sky, an astronomical occurrence known as a conjunction.
A telescope or a pair of binoculars are not required for many of the major celestial phenomena in 2022; all that is required is a clear sky and the motivation to get up and go outside before the sun rises.
The near encounter between the two stars will last three days, so stargazers can choose the morning with the best weather forecast for a chance to see it. On Sunday, May 29, however, Mars and Jupiter will be the closest.
People who are awake and have good weather can see the planets in the eastern sky approximately 60 to 90 minutes before sunrise, local time. The brighter of the two planets will be Jupiter, with Mars appearing slightly below it.
Venus, which will seem lower in the eastern sky, and Saturn, which will look higher in the southeastern sky, will also be visible to early risers.
While the two planets appear to be near in the sky, they are hundreds of millions of kilometres apart in reality. They appear to be a close-knit celestial couple only from the perspective of the Earth.
Anyone who misses this planetary alignment will have to wait until August 14, 2024 to witness Mars and Jupiter collide again.
Mars and Jupiter will remain prominent early in the morning sky throughout June, but after the late-May conjunction, they will gradually seem farther and farther apart each morning.
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn will align in the days after the summer solstice, which falls on June 21. This will be the best pre-dawn planetary spectacle of the year.
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