Apocalyptic prophecies in the Middle Ages and Renaissance Europe often involved Saturn-Jupiter conjunctions, says historian Laura Ackerman Smoller.
Astronomers and amateur star gazers alike are training their telescopes on the evening sky for a heavenly spectacle when the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn is more visible from Earth than it’s been in nearly 800 years.
The celestial event will play out on Monday this year’s winter solstice when our solar system’s two largest planets appear side by side above the horizon soon after sunset.
It’s been nearly eight centuries since the pair of planets appeared in conjunction this close to Earth. In 1623, a similar conjunction of the planets occurred, but on the same side of the sky as the sun, which meant it wasn’t visible from the Blue Planet. Monday’s conjunction will be the first visible occurrence since before the time of Marco Polo.