A rare celestial dance brings two giants to 'kissing distance'

Space · Published 30 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: On December 21, 2020, Jupiter and Saturn performed a rare orbital duet. Despite being separated by hundreds of millions of miles in space, these two giants appeared nearly joined from our perspective on Earth, producing a visual display that has not been seen for several centuries.

This event, known as a Great Conjunction, occurs roughly every 20 years as the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn align from our perspective. However, the 2020 occurrence was particularly notable for its proximity. At a gap of only one-tenth of a degree, the pair sat roughly as wide as a held dime's thickness or 1/5th of a full moon's diameter. This specific visual alignment is much rarer than conjunctions involving inner planets like Mercury or Venus. Those smaller bodies meet many times every decade due to their closer proximity to the sun.

The timing provided a unique astronomical coincidence: it occurred on the Winter Solstice, the day with the least amount of daylight in the Northern Hemisphere. This long night offered observers more opportunity to view the planets in the southwest sky as soon as they became visible after sunset. Because Jupiter and Saturn are the two most distant planets visible to the unaided eye, their slow movement across the sky makes such close pairings exceptionally rare. For those in the Southern Hemisphere, this same date marks the official beginning of summer. The celestial event remains visible from all over the world without any specialized equipment.

While the planets appeared as a single 'blip' or a 'Christmas Star' to many, those with binoculars or telescopes could see them as separate objects. At low power, both giants—along with Jupiter's four bright moons and Saturn's distinctive rings—could fit within a single field of view. While this specific close approach happened in 2020, the planets have not been this close in the visible night sky for about 800 years. This particular close approach was not seen for almost 400 years.

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