Jupiter and Saturn formed a rare "Christmas Star".
A rare cosmic occurrence happened on 21 December 2020 where two of the biggest planets in our solar system, Jupiter and Saturn, appeared to merger in the night sky.
This has happened for the 2nd time since Galileo discovered Jupitor's moons and Saturn's characteristic rings.
Though the two planets will appear spectacularly close together on the sky’s dome now, Jupiter and Saturn are actually 456 million miles (734 million km) apart. Saturn is nearly twice as far away as Jupiter.
Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions happen every 20 years; the last one was in the year 2000. But these conjunctions aren’t all created equal. The 2020 great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn will be the closest since 1623 and the closest observable since 1226. 2020’s extra-close Jupiter-Saturn conjunction won’t be matched again until the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction of March 15, 2080.
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