APOD: 2026 June 12 – Venus and Jupiter: Conjunction from Avebury
Discover the cosmos!
Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2026 June 12
Venus and Jupiter: Conjunction from Avebury
Image Credit &
Copyright:
Josh Dury
Explanation:
To see Venus and Jupiter
together this month, you won’t need binoculars or even a telescope.
Just look up
after sunset and you’ll find them
emerging as the sky grows dark near the western horizon.
In fact, on June 9 the two brightest planets were in close conjunction,
separated on the sky by less than 2 degrees from our perspective.
Since (brighter) inner planet Venus orbits the Sun faster than outer planet
Jupiter, it catches up with and passes the outer planet along the
ecliptic roughly every 13 months.
But every three years or so their resulting conjunction can be viewed
far enough from the Sun to be easily seen in Earth’s twilight skies.
On June 9, the two celestial beacon’s
close “cosmic kiss” was
captured here
next to two large standing stones, the remains of
a cove
near the center of a 4,000 year old
stone circle at Avebury, UK.
Larger than Stonehenge,
the
Avebury henge and stone circle complex
is also recognized as one of the most
significant neolithic
ceremonial sites on planet Earth.
Tomorrow’s picture: interplanetary
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Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn
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