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American space agency NASA recently shared a picture of the Saturn-Jupiter conjunction as seen from space, prompting a range of reactions on social media.
The rare celestial phenomenon, which was visible in the night sky on December 21, saw the two biggest planets align closest to each other, resulting in a ‘conjunction’.
NASA shared pictures of what the phenomenon looked like from space and the picture has now caught the attention of many.
“Unlike @NASASun, that’s no star, its two planets! #TheGreatConjunction looks great from the Moon!” the agency wrote.
In the picture, the two planets appear as two faint spots, almost overlapping with each other to form a double planet.
Take a look here:
Take a look at some reactions here:
The planets regularly appear to pass each other in the solar system, with the positions of Jupiter and Saturn being aligned in the sky about once every 20 years. However, this is the first time in nearly 400 years that the planets passed this close to each other in the sky resulting in the great conjunction, said NASA.
The planets were so close that they were reportedly only 0.1 degrees (a fraction of the width of the full moon) apart from each other.
