The year 2020 will end on a high note for sky lovers. On the night of the Winter Solstice on Dec. 21, Jupiter and Saturn will be so close that they will appear to form a "double planet."
It’s known as the great conjunction. Jupiter and Saturn will appear the closest in Earth’s night sky than they have since the Middle Ages in 1226.
The great conjunction is also known by some astronomers as the ‘Christmas Star’ because of a belief that the biblical story of the Star of Bethlehem could have been a planetary conjunction. Although at that time, Venus and Jupiter were closest — not Jupiter and Saturn, as is the case for the ‘Christmas Star’ of 2020.
