Moon And Jupiter To Have Close Encounter In Night Sky On Valentine's Day

Tonight on Valentine's Day, the moon and Jupiter are going on a close encounter in the night sky. The moon and Jupiter will be less than three degrees apart, equivalent to the width of a few fingers at arm's length, starting when the pair rises above the horizon shortly before 9:30 pm, as per Space.com.

As the moon becomes bigger and closer to its first quarter phase on February 16, it will be a five-day-old waxing crescent. Jupiter, on the other hand, will be seen as a bright, pale yellow orb. According to Science Times, "waxing" refers to the growth of the moon, and "crescent" refers to its sickle and curvy shape.

According to the outlet, one needs to look high to the southwest to view the two astronomical bodies. Jupiter will be just above the moon as the two will make their way to the sky throughout the evening. 

Even though they may appear to be close to each other in the night sky tonight, Jupiter and the moon are actually hundreds of millions of kilometres apart. They are separated by an average distance of 714 million kilometres while the moon is 384,400 kilometres away from Earth. 

The distance between the moon and Jupiter only slightly changes, even as our natural satellite passes between them during its orbit around our planet.

The Moon will appear closer over Australia and Singapore despite being visible from all over the world because of an optical illusion that causes the Moon to appear larger when it is close to the horizon than when it is higher in the sky.