Mohali
The PushpaGujral Science City, in collaboration with Rotary Club International, offered opportunity to more than 200 students to watch livea rare celestial event on Monday evening as the Planets Jupiter and the Saturn appeared to merge and looked like a single bright star, in what is called the “Great Conjunction”.
This Conjunction is an astronomical event that occurred on December 21, 2020. Saturn and Jupiter, the two largest planets of our solar system, nearly overlapped by coming as close as 0.10, an event that hasn’t been visible since the Middle Ages.The program was organized at KhalsaSen. Secondary School,Kharar. Addressing the participants, Director General Science City, Dr. Neelima Jerath informed that the occurrence of this celestial event is so rare that the last time this conjunction happened was about 400 years and the last time it could be actually seen was in 1226.
She also informed that Science City has always been proactive in capturing such Astronomical events for the space enthusiasts. Science City offers Night Sky Watching facility wherein one can experience the best view of planets. The facility is also provided on demand to educational institutions at their own premises where expert teams from Science City visit the host institution and organise Night Sky Watching through high powered telescopes. Rtn. Manmohan Singh, Member, Punjab Infrastructure Regulatory Authority, informed that the planets will next come comparably close to each other on March 15, 2080 but the Conjunction will be visible in the year 2400. He informed that this happens due to movement of these planets at different speeds and indifferent orbits around the Sun. All COVID-19 safeguards were followed.
