{"id":72880,"date":"2013-12-25T00:01:45","date_gmt":"2013-12-25T05:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=72880"},"modified":"2013-12-24T14:14:36","modified_gmt":"2013-12-24T19:14:36","slug":"christmas-conjunction-in-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/daily-astrology\/christmas-conjunction-in-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Conjunction in Space"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to some scholars, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tccsa.tc\/articles\/star_susan_carroll.pdf\">Star of Bethlehem<\/a> might have been a close encounter between Venus and Jupiter. The two brightest planets in the night sky, merged, would have made a spectacle of Biblical proportions. This Christmas, NASA&#8217;s STEREO-B probe is observing a conjunction of three planets &#8212; Venus, Earth and Jupiter.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/christmasstar_strip.jpg?resize=375%2C375&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"christmasstar_strip\" width=\"375\" height=\"375\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-72882\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/christmasstar_strip.jpg?w=375&amp;ssl=1 375w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/christmasstar_strip.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/christmasstar_strip.jpg?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 375px) 100vw, 375px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Unlike conjunctions of the distant past, this one includes our home planet. STEREO-B is located on the far side of the Sun where it can look back and see Earth along with other worlds in the Solar System. Only NASA&#8217;s twin STEREO probes, equipped with their high dynamic-range Heliospheric Imagers, can witness this kind of conjunction.<\/p>\n<p>From STEREO-B&#8217;s point of view, Earth and Jupiter are less than 0.4 degrees apart, while all three planets fit in a circle 2 degrees in diameter. This meeting is not nearly as tight as the putative Star of Bethlehem conjunction ~2000 years ago. At that time Venus and Jupiter could have been as little as 6 arcseconds (0.00166 degrees) apart. Nevertheless, the ongoing display is still special because it&#8217;s the first &#8220;Christmas Star conjunction&#8221; from space. Happy Holidays from <a href=\"http:\/\/stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov\/\">STEREO<\/a>! <\/p>\n<p><em>&#8212; reprinted from <a href=\"http:\/\/spaceweather.com\/\">Spaceweather.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to some scholars, the Star of Bethlehem might have been a close encounter between Venus and Jupiter. The two brightest planets in the night sky, merged, would have made a spectacle of Biblical proportions. This Christmas, NASA&#8217;s STEREO-B probe is observing a conjunction of three planets &#8212; Venus, Earth and Jupiter. Unlike conjunctions of &#8230; <a title=\"Christmas Conjunction in Space\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/daily-astrology\/christmas-conjunction-in-space\/\" aria-label=\"More on Christmas Conjunction in Space\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72880"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72880\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}