astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...

, a conjunction occurs when two astronomical objects or

spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, p ...

have either the same right ascension or the same

ecliptic longitude The ecliptic coordinate system is a celestial coordinate system commonly used for representing the apparent positions, orbits, and pole orientations of Solar System objects. Because most planets (except Mercury) and many small Solar System b ...

, usually as observed from Earth. When two objects always appear close to the

ecliptic The ecliptic or ecliptic plane is the orbital plane of the Earth around the Sun. From the perspective of an observer on Earth, the Sun's movement around the celestial sphere over the course of a year traces out a path along the ecliptic agains ...

—such as two

planet A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a you ...

s, the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

and a planet, or the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

and a planet—this fact implies an apparent close approach between the objects as seen in the sky. A related word, ''

appulse Appulse is the least apparent distance between one celestial object and another, as seen from a third body during a given period. Appulse is seen in the apparent motion typical of two planets together in the sky, or of the Moon to a star or pla ...

'', is the minimum apparent separation in the sky of two astronomical objects. Conjunctions involve either two objects in the

Solar System The Solar System Capitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar ...

or one object in the Solar System and a more distant object, such as a star. A conjunction is an apparent phenomenon caused by the observer's perspective: the two objects involved are not actually close to one another in

space Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually cons ...

. Conjunctions between two bright objects close to the ecliptic, such as two bright planets, can be seen with the

naked eye Naked eye, also called bare eye or unaided eye, is the practice of engaging in visual perception unaided by a magnifying, light-collecting optical instrument, such as a telescope or microscope, or eye protection. Vision corrected to normal ...

. The

astronomical symbol Astronomical symbols are abstract pictorial symbols used to represent astronomical objects, theoretical constructs and observational events in European astronomy. The earliest forms of these symbols appear in Greek papyrus texts of late antiq ...

for conjunction is Conjunction symbol

(

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, wh ...

U+260C ☌). The conjunction symbol is not used in modern astronomy. It continues to be used in

astrology Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Di ...

Passing close

More generally, in the particular case of two

s, it means that they merely have the same right ascension (and hence the same

hour angle In astronomy and celestial navigation, the hour angle is the angle between two planes: one containing Earth's axis and the zenith (the '' meridian plane''), and the other containing Earth's axis and a given point of interest (the ''hour circle ...

). This is called conjunction in right ascension. However, there is also the term conjunction in ecliptic longitude. At such conjunction both objects have the same ecliptic longitude. Conjunction in right ascension and conjunction in ecliptic longitude do not normally take place at the same time, but in most cases nearly at the same time. However, at

triple conjunction A triple conjunction is an astronomical event when two planets or a planet and a star appear to meet each other three times during a brief period, either in opposition or at the time of inferior conjunction, if an inferior planet is involved. Th ...

s, it is possible that a conjunction only in right ascension (or ecliptic length) occurs. At the time of conjunction – it does not matter if in right ascension or in ecliptic longitude – the involved planets are close together upon the celestial sphere. In the vast majority of such cases, one of the planets will appear to pass north or south of the other.

Passing closer

However, if two celestial bodies attain the same declination at the time of a conjunction in right ascension (or the same ecliptic latitude at a conjunction in ecliptic longitude), the one that is closer to the Earth will pass in front of the other. In such a case, a syzygy takes place. If one object moves into the shadow of another, the event is an eclipse. For example, if the Moon passes into the shadow of Earth and disappears from view, this event is called a lunar eclipse. If the visible disk of the nearer object is considerably smaller than that of the farther object, the event is called a transit. When Mercury passes in front of the Sun, it is a

transit of Mercury frameless, upright=0.5 A transit of Mercury across the Sun takes place when the planet Mercury passes directly between the Sun and a superior planet. During a transit, Mercury appears as a tiny black dot moving across the Sun as the planet obs ...

, and when Venus passes in front of the Sun, it is a

transit of Venus frameless, upright=0.5 A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and a superior planet, becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk. During a tr ...

. When the nearer object appears larger than the farther one, it will completely obscure its smaller companion; this is called an

occultation An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden from the observer by another object that passes between them. The term is often used in astronomy, but can also refer to any situation in which an object in the foreground blocks ...

. An example of an occultation is when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, causing the Sun to disappear either entirely or partially. This phenomenon is commonly known as a solar eclipse. Occultations in which the larger body is neither the Sun nor the Moon are very rare. More frequent, however, is an occultation of a planet by the

. Several such events are visible every year from various places on Earth.

Position of the observer

A conjunction, as a phenomenon of perspective, is an event that involves two astronomical bodies seen by an observer on the Earth. Times and details depend only very slightly on the observer's location on the Earth's surface, with the differences being greatest for conjunctions involving the Moon because of its relative closeness, but even for the Moon the time of a conjunction never differs by more than a few hours.

Superior and inferior

As seen from a planet that is superior, if an inferior planet is on the opposite side of the Sun, it is in superior conjunction with the Sun. An inferior conjunction occurs when the two planets lie in a line on the same side of the

. In an inferior conjunction, the superior planet is "in opposition" to the Sun as seen from the inferior planet.

The terms "inferior conjunction" and "superior conjunction" are used in particular for the planets Mercury and

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...

, which are inferior planets as seen from the Earth. However, this definition can be applied to any pair of planets, as seen from the one farther from the Sun. A planet (or asteroid or

comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ...

) is simply said to be in conjunction, when it is in conjunction with the

, as seen from the Earth. The

is in conjunction with the Sun at New Moon.

Quasiconjunction

In a quasiconjunction, a planet in

retrograde motion Retrograde motion in astronomy is, in general, orbital or rotational motion of an object in the direction opposite the rotation of its primary, that is, the central object (right figure). It may also describe other motions such as precession ...

— always either Mercury or

, from the point of view of

the Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surface ...

— will "drop back" in right ascension until it almost allows another planet to overtake it, but then the former planet will resume its forward motion and thereafter appear to draw away from it again. This will occur in the morning sky, before dawn. The reverse may happen in the evening sky after dusk, with Mercury or Venus entering retrograde motion just as it is about to overtake another planet (often Mercury ''and'' Venus are ''both'' of the planets involved, and when this situation arises they may remain in very close visual proximity for several days or even longer). The quasiconjunction is reckoned as occurring at the time the distance in right ascension between the two planets is smallest, even though, when declination is taken into account, they may appear closer together shortly before or after this.

Average interval between conjunctions

The interval between two conjunctions involving the same two planets is not constant, but the average interval between two similar conjunctions can be calculated from the periods of the planets. The "speed" at which a planet goes around the sun, in terms of revolutions per time, is given by the inverse of its period, and the speed difference between two planets is the difference between these. For conjunctions of two planets beyond the orbit of Earth, the average time interval between two conjunctions is the time it takes for 360° to be covered by that speed difference, so the average interval is: :

\frac 1

This does not apply of course to the intervals between the individual conjunctions of a

. Conjunctions between a planet inside the orbit of Earth (Venus or Mercury) and a planet outside are a bit more complicated. As the outer planet swings around from being in opposition to the sun to being east of the sun, then in superior conjunction with the sun, then west of the sun, and back to opposition, it will be in conjunction with Venus or Mercury an odd number of times. So the average interval between, say, the first conjunction of one set and the first of the next set will be equal to the average interval between its oppositions with the sun. As for conjunctions between Mercury and Venus, each time Venus goes from maximum elongation to the east of the sun to maximum elongation west of the sun and then back to east of the sun, an even number of conjunctions with Mercury take place. The average interval between corresponding conjunctions (for example the first of one set and the first of the next) is 1.599 years, based on the orbital speeds of Venus and Earth. The following table gives these average intervals, in sidereal years, for combinations of the nine traditional planets. Since

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest ...

is in resonance with Neptune the period used is 1.5 times that of Neptune, slightly different from the current value. The interval is then exactly thrice the period of Neptune.

Notable conjunctions

File:Conjunção Lua-Vênus-Júpiter.jpg, Conjunction of Venus (left) and Jupiter (bottom), with the nearby crescent Moon, seen from São Paulo, Brazil, on 1 December 2008 File:Lune-Venus-Jupiter.JPG, Moon, Venus and Jupiter File:Moon Jupiter Venus.JPG, Moon, Jupiter (top), and Venus (right) at dusk seen from Madrid, Spain, on 20 June 2015

1953 BC

File:Planet Meeting 1953BC.png, Meeting of all 5 bright planets on February 27, 1953 BC for an observer at 50N 9E at 7 CET On February 27, 1953 BC Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn formed a group with an angular diametre of 26.45 arc minutes. Jupiter was on the same day only a few degrees away, so that on this day all 5 bright planets could be found in an area measuring only 4.33 degrees. David Pankenier and David Nivison have suggested that this conjunction occurred at the beginning of the

Xia dynasty The Xia dynasty () is the first dynasty in traditional Chinese historiography. According to tradition, the Xia dynasty was established by the legendary Yu the Great, after Shun, the last of the Five Emperors, gave the throne to him. In tradit ...

in China.

929

File:Conjunction between Mars and Jupiter on July4th,929.png, Conjunction of Mars and Jupiter on July 4th, 929 for an observer at 50N 9E at 23 CET. Both planets reached nearly their greatest possible brightness A triple conjunction between Mars and Jupiter occurred. At the first conjunction on May 26th, 929 Mars, whose brightness was -1.8 mag, stood 3.1 degrees south of Jupiter with a brightness of -2.6 mag. The second conjunction took place on July 4th, 929, whereby Mars stood 5.7 degrees south of Jupiter. Both planets were -2.8 mag bright. On August 18th, 929 the -1.9 mag bright Mars stood 4.7 degrees south of Jupiter, which was -2.6 mag bright. The second conjunction might have been from all conjunctions between outer planets since Birth of Christ that at which both planets had greatest brightness. At all other conjunctions between outer planets at least one planet was dimmer.

1503

File:Meeting of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn on December 26th, 1503.png, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation Gemini on December 26, 1503 Between December 22, 1503 and December 27, 1503 all thright bright outer planets Mars, Jupiter and Saturn reached their opposition to sun and stood therefore close together at the nocturnal sky. During the opposition period 1503 Mars stood 3 times in conjunction with Jupiter (October 5, 1503, January 19, 1504 and February 8, 1504) and 3 times in conjunction with Saturn (October 14, 1503, December 26, 1503 and March 7, 1504). Jupiter and Saturn stood on May 24, 1504 in close conjunction with an angular separation of 19 arcminutes.

1604

File:View of Supernova1604.png, View on Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Kepler's Supernova on October 9, 1604 for an observer at 50N 9E at 19 CET On October 9, 1604 a conjunction between Mars and Jupiter took place, whereby Mars passed Jupiter 1.8 degrees southward. Only two degrees away from Jupiter

Kepler's Supernova SN 1604, also known as Kepler's Supernova, Kepler's Nova or Kepler's Star, was a Type Ia supernova that occurred in the Milky Way, in the constellation Ophiuchus. Appearing in 1604, it is the most recent supernova in the Milky Way galaxy to ha ...

appeared on the same day. This was perhaps the only time in recorded history a supernova took place near a conjunction of two planets.

1899

In early December 1899 the Sun and the naked-eye planets appeared to lie within a band 35 degrees wide along the ecliptic as seen from the Earth. As a consequence, over the period 1–4 December 1899, the Moon reached conjunction with, in order, Jupiter, Uranus, the Sun, Mercury, Mars, Saturn and Venus. Most of these conjunctions were not visible because of the glare of the Sun.

1962

Over the period 4–6 February 1962, in a rare series of events, Mercury and Venus reached conjunction as observed from the Earth, followed by Venus and Jupiter, then by Mars and Saturn. Conjunctions took place between the Moon and, in turn, Mars, Saturn, the Sun, Mercury, Venus and Jupiter. Mercury also reached inferior conjunction with the Sun. The conjunction between the Moon and the Sun at new Moon produced a total solar eclipse visible in Indonesia and the Pacific Ocean, when these five naked-eye planets were visible in the vicinity of the Sun in the sky.

1987

Mercury,

and

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...

separately reached conjunction with each other, and each separately with the Sun, within a 7-day period in August 1987 as seen from the Earth. The Moon also reached conjunction with each of these bodies on 24 August. However, none of these conjunctions were observable due to the glare of the Sun.

2000

In May 2000, in a very rare event, several planets lay in the vicinity of the Sun in the sky as seen from the Earth, and a series of conjunctions took place. Jupiter, Mercury and Saturn each reached conjunction with the Sun in the period 8–10 May. These three planets in turn were in conjunction with each other and with Venus over a period of a few weeks. However, most of these conjunctions were not visible from the Earth because of the glare from the Sun. NASA referred to May 5 as the date of the conjunction.

2002

Venus, Mars and Saturn appeared close together in the evening sky in early May 2002, with a conjunction of Mars and Saturn occurring on 4 May. This was followed by a conjunction of Venus and Saturn on 7 May, and another of Venus and Mars on 10 May when their angular separation was only 18 arcminutes. A series of conjunctions between the Moon and, in order, Saturn, Mars and Venus took place on 14 May, although it was not possible to observe all these in darkness from any single location on the Earth.

2007

A conjunction of the Moon and Mars took place on 24 December 2007, very close to the time of the full Moon and at the time when Mars was at opposition to the Sun. Mars and the full Moon appeared close together in the sky worldwide, with an occultation of Mars occurring for observers in some far northern locations. A similar conjunction took place on 21 May 2016.

2008

A conjunction of

and

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...

occurred on 1 December 2008, and several hours later both planets separately reached conjunction with the crescent

. An

of Venus by the Moon was visible from some locations. The three objects appeared close together in the sky from any location on the Earth.

2012

2013

At the end of May, Mercury,

and

went through a series of conjunctions only a few days apart.

2015

File:Venus-Jupiter Conjunction of June 30, 2015.jpg, Venus-Jupiter Conjunction of June 30, 2015 June 30 -

and

come close together in a planetary conjunction; they came approximately 1/3 a degree apart. The conjunction had been nicknamed the "Star of Bethlehem."

2016

On the morning of January 9,

and Saturn came together in a conjunction On August 27, Mercury and

were in conjunction, followed by a conjunction of

and

, meaning that the three planets were very close together in the evening sky.

2017

On the morning of November 13,

and

were in conjunction, meaning that they appeared close together in the morning sky.

2018

On the early hours of January 7,

and

were in conjunction. The pair was only 0.25 degrees apart in the sky at its closest.

2020

File:C2020F3.P1023630.jpg, Talitha Borealis in conjunction with the comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) on 18 July 2020 21:30 UTC with an attitude von 17° above the north horizon of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

(image height = 4°). At the lower edge of the picture, a bit left from the centre there is the neighbour star Alkaphrah (Kappa Ursae Majoris respectively ''Talitha Australis''). The distance between Talitha Borealis and C/2020 F3 was seven

arc minute A minute of arc, arcminute (arcmin), arc minute, or minute arc, denoted by the symbol , is a unit of angular measurement equal to of one degree. Since one degree is of a turn (or complete rotation), one minute of arc is of a turn. The n ...

s. During most of February, March, and April, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were close to each other, and so they underwent a series of conjunctions: on March 20, Mars was in conjunction with Jupiter, and on March 31, Mars was in conjunction with Saturn. On December 21, Jupiter and Saturn appeared at their closest separation in the sky since 1623, in an event known as a great conjunction.

2022

File:Konjunktion Pallas-Sirius am 9 Oktober 2022 mit kurzer Brennweite beschriftet.png, Conjunction of Sirius and Pallas (marked with an arrow) on October 9, 2022, photographed with an

objective Objective may refer to: * Objective (optics), an element in a camera or microscope * ''The Objective'', a 2008 science fiction horror film * Objective pronoun, a personal pronoun that is used as a grammatical object * Objective Productions, a Brit ...

with a focal length of 75 millimetres File:Konjunktion Pallas-Sirius am 9 Oktober 2022 mit langer Brennweite beschriftet.png, Conjunction of Sirius and Pallas (marked with an arrow) on October 9, 2022, photographed with an

with a focal length of 300 millimetres Planetoid

Pallas Pallas may refer to: Astronomy * 2 Pallas asteroid ** Pallas family, a group of asteroids that includes 2 Pallas * Pallas (crater), a crater on Earth's moon Mythology * Pallas (Giant), a son of Uranus and Gaia, killed and flayed by Athena * Pa ...

passes

Sirius Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. Its name is derived from the Greek word , or , meaning 'glowing' or 'scorching'. The star is designated α Canis Majoris, Latinized to Alpha Canis Majoris, and abbreviated Alpha CM ...

, the brightest star in the sky, on October 9th southly in a distance of 8.5 arcminutes (source: Astrolutz 2022, ISBN 978-3-7534-7124-2). As Sirius is far south of the ecliptic only few objects of the solar system can be seen from earth close to Sirius.
At this occasion Pallas had not only the lowest angular distance to Sirius in the 21st century, but also since its discovery in 1802.
In the 19th century the greatest approach of Pallas and Sirius took place on October 11, 1879, when 8.6 mag bright Pallas passed Sirius 1.3° southwestly and in the 20th century the lowest distance between Pallas and Sirius was reached on October 12, 1962, when Pallas, whose brightness was also 8.6 mag, stood 1.4° southwest of the brightest star in the sky.

Conjunctions of planets in right ascension 2005–2020

References

External links

*
Venus - Jupiter 2015 & 2016 conjunctions
*
Planets conjunctions and mutual occultations 1000BC to 3000AD

Conjunctions of planets with the main asteroids
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Conjunction (Astronomy) Astrometry