Oman to witness rare astronomical phenomena
By: Times News Service
Image courtesy: NASA
Muscat: Oman, along with other parts of the world, will witness on Monday two astronomical phenomena, a rare event coinciding with the winter solstice.
At 2:02 pm on December 21, Oman, the skies above the rest of the Arab World and parts of the northern hemisphere, will witness what’s called the Great Conjunction.
This rare astronomical event will see Jupiter and Saturn line up very close to each other, according to Faisal bin Mohammed Al Qartubi, the deputy chairman of astronomical observations at the Oman Astronomical Society.
“The two will be separated by a distance of 0.1 degrees, or six arc minutes,” he said. “As for the real distance between these two planets, it’ll actually be about hundreds of millions of kilometres. This phenomenon can be observed when you look at the horizon in a southwest direction. This phenomenon will last for nearly two hours.