Venus and Saturn are getting closer. Is it true?

For the entire month of January, Venus and Saturn come closer together in the evening sky. On the 17th and 18th, the distance between them will become minimal. However, does this mean they are close in space?

Venus will meet Saturn

Venus and Saturn

The January sky is preparing to give us a new spectacular view. On the 17th and 18th, Saturn will be seen next to Venus. These two planets have been gradually moving toward each other throughout January and have been close to each other for quite some time. But this Friday and Saturday, the distance between them will be minimal.

Conditions will be great for planetary observations, weather permitting. On January 10, Venus passed the point of maximum eastern elongation. It is still very far from the Sun, and it can be observed in the evening for several hours after sunset in the constellation Aquarius.

Saturn will be slightly to the left of Venus in the same constellation. On January 17, the angular distance between them will be 2.2°, and on January 18 – 2.3°. After that, they will begin to diverge, although both planets will be approaching the Sun. Just Saturn will do it much faster because it is not his movement, and the Earth, which revolves around the Sun for a period of almost 30 times less than the planet with rings.

Saturn and Venus during the conjunction. Source: stellarium-web.org

Are they a beautiful couple?

This all sounds good, but there are serious doubts that these two planets will look beautiful together in the sky. Venus, although it has already passed its maximum elongation and its phase is decreasing, continues to increase in brilliance. It is now about -4.6m. At the same time, Saturn’s star magnitude is 1.13m.

It seems bright enough too, but the planet with rings is almost 150 times dimmer than Venus. This means that our nearest neighbor during the maximum approach can greatly light up the sky and Saturn in such conditions will be almost invisible.

A comparison of the sizes of the planets. Source: astrocamp.org

In addition, it should be recalled that what can be seen in the sky correlates very poorly with the real sizes of the planets and the distances between them. In fact, Saturn’s diameter is 9 times larger than Venus’.

It does not look so bright in the sky because the distance from the Earth to it will be 1540 million kilometers, and Venus will be only 95 million kilometers from us, that is, the distance to it is about 16 times less.

Moreover, it is necessary to take into consideration the albedo of the planets, i.e., the fraction of light they give off. For Saturn, this value is 0.34, and for Venus – 0.67. Not surprisingly, it is much more visible in the sky than a planet with rings.

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