I consider myself a fairly intelligent, college-educated individual, but lately, I’m seeing all these telescopic photos of the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction, and I’m confused as to how the two planets have close apparent sizes. How is this so, despite Saturn being millions of miles further away?
In: Physics
They aren’t the same size if you only count the planet itself, Saturn is noticeably smaller than Jupiter in the sky. However Saturn also has it’s rings which are very large, if you include them in your measurement then it is nearly the same size as Jupiter in the sky.
|Planet|Minimum Size/ arcseconds|Maximum Size/ arcseconds|
|:-|:-|:-|
|Jupiter|29.8|50.1|
|Saturn|14.5|20.1|
|Saturn + Rings|33 ish|44 ish|
Latest Answers