I read an article that says it happens every 19.6 years, but this is the first time since 1226 that it has happened during earth’s night so we can see it. I don’t understand how that happens that it is only 1 out of the last 42 times it has occurred.
In: Physics
Earth takes a year to go around the Sun, Jupiter and Saturn take several years. So during the few days they’re really close in the sky, the positions of everything relative to the sun don’t change very much – but only the region of the solar system “behind” the Earth compared to the sun is visible at night from the Earth. If that conjunction, or anything, happens and the Earth isn’t between it and the Sun, then it’s hard to see from Earth because the bright Sun is illuminating all the dust in our atmosphere and making the sky too bright to see dim things.
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