Bhubaneswar (SunstarTV Bureau): The sky gazers can see the bright planet in the sky with bare eyes for the entire month of August.
As per the Indian Standard Time, the Saturn came closest to Earth at 11.30 am today.
According to the Deputy Director of Pathani Samanta Planetarium, Bhubaneswar, Dr Suvendu Pattnaik informed that the Saturn and Earth have been closest to each other from today. People with their naked eyes will be able to see the Saturn at night.
While Earth takes 365 days to orbit the Sun, the Saturn, which is the second largest planet after Jupiter in our solar system, takes 10,759 Earth days to complete one round of the Sun.
Saturn and Earth come closest to each other once every year while revolving in their orbital path. The planets duo comes to closest to each other in a time span of 1 year and 13 days when Earth and Saturn are positioned on the same side of the Sun. Such astronomical phenomenon is called ‘opposition’. During this period, the average distance between the planets will be around 120 crore km, which is 8 times longer between the Sun and Earth.
Meanwhile, the maximum distance between the Sun and Earth will be 170 crore km, which is 11 times. The Saturn and Earth had come closer on July 20, 2020. The astronomical phenomenon will take place again on August 14, 2022, the senior planetarium official stated.
The Saturn will appear in the east after sunset today. It will set in the west 12 hours after its appearance till sunrise.
