A Rare Venus-Jupiter Conjunction Is Coming Soon—Here’s How and When to See It

Get ready for this summertime celestial event.

Next week, the two brightest planets in the sky—Venus and Jupiter—will appear to meet. They will draw closest around June 8 and 9, but you can start tracking them now and watch as they get closer to each other leading up to next week's meeting.

According to NASA, this is called a planetary conjunction—when two planets appear near each other from our point of view on Earth, even though they're still millions of miles apart in space.

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To see the planets, look west shortly after sunset. Right now, Jupiter is higher than Venus, per EarthSky.org. But on the evenings of June 8 and 9, they will be only about 1.5 degrees apart; your pinky finger held at arm's length should just fit between them. And by June 9, Venus will appear a bit higher above the western horizon than Jupiter.

You also won't need binoculars to spot the planetary pair since they'll be brighter than any of the stars in the sky.

Then, from June 11 to 15, Mercury will join Venus and Jupiter in a three- planet alignment visible in the western sky after sunset.