A spectacle in the night sky

Published: 17.12.2020.

During the winter solstice, on December 21, a spectacle in the night sky awaits us, a very rare phenomenon.

For the first time in 800 years, a "Christmas star" will be seen in the sky to illuminate the night sky.

This will happen thanks to the planets Jupiter and Saturn. Namely, the two largest planets of the solar system will approach on December 21 when the winter solstice occurs and last equally day and night, so close that they will look like a "double planet", a conjunction that will look like one super bright point of light on Earth.

This amazing phenomenon is known in history as the ‘Christmas Star’ or the ‘Star of Bethlehem’. According to the Gospel of Matthew, the star brought the Holy Three Kings to Bethlehem where Jesus was born. It has become a symbol in addition to nativity scenes and Christmas angels and an important element of Christmas jewelry directly associated with Christianity. This is why the star is placed on top of the Christmas tree where it usually stays until the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6th.

Alignments between these two planets are quite rare, occurring once in 20 years, but this connection is extremely rare because of how close the planets will look to each other. This happened only once before, back in 1226, on March 4, before dawn during the reign of Genghis Khan.

Experts say this rare event will be able to be followed in the clear sky for about an hour after sunset on December 21, the Winter Solstice. Such a close relationship will not be repeated until March 15, 2080. According to experts, the rare event will be able to be traced anywhere where the sky is clear about an hour after sunset on December 21, the Winter Solstice.