In the early hours of Wednesday morning (Aug. 14), two of the solar system's brightest and most famous planets will appear to pass exceptionally close to each other. In this rare conjunction of Jupiter and Mars, the two planets will lie a mere third of a degree apart in the night sky.
A planetary conjunction describes when two or more planets appear to be close to each other. This conjunction will be best seen from around 2:00 a.m. local time until dawn on Wednesday. During that time, the two planets will rise in the northeastern night sky with the constellation Taurus, and move about 50 degrees above the eastern horizon by daybreak.
