Jupiter, Venus to meet in conjunction on Tuesday night

Two planets will appear close together in the night sky on Tuesday, according to NASA.

Jupiter and Venus will meet in a “planetary conjunction” about 45 minutes after sunset Tuesday. A planetary conjunction occurs when two planets look like they are near each other, even though they still are millions of miles apart in space.

According to NASA’s website, stargazers can look west after sunset to see Venus and Jupiter near each other. The two planets will “appear like a pair of bright stars close beside one another in the evening sky,” according to the BBC’s Sky at Night Magazine.

Jupiter will be the planet on the left, and Venus will be the planet on the right, according to the BBC. The planets are two of the “brightest” in the sky, according to NASA.

Jupiter and Venus will be visible for a week or two after Tuesday’s planetary conjunction, but June 9 will be the best day to see them, according to the BBC.

The planets may be visible for up to two hours after sunset in a prime location, according to the BBC. The amount of time that the planets will remain visible depends on how clear and flat the viewer’s northwestern horizon is.

Light pollution can “obscure” celestial events, making it difficult for stargazers to see stars, planets and other aspects of space, according to NOAA’s Shawn Dahl. As a result, the best nighttime sky watching is done far from big cities.