Mars and Jupiter’s Unmissable 2024 Alignment

Mars and Jupiter are set to make their closest approach of the decade in the night sky. On Wednesday, these two planets will appear so near each other that a sliver of the moon could fit between them from our viewpoint. However, they will actually be over 350 million miles (575 million kilometers) apart in their orbits.

The closest alignment, or planetary conjunction, will occur during the day on Wednesday for most of the Americas, Europe, and Africa. Despite this, they will look nearly as close the night before or the next day. According to Jon Giorgini from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the best viewing will be in the eastern sky toward the constellation Taurus before dawn.

Such alignments, happening every few years, are primarily for visual enjoyment and are predicted years in advance. This close encounter has not occurred since 2018 and will not happen again until 2033, when Mars and Jupiter will be even closer.

Historically, the closest alignment in the past 1,000 years was in 1761 when Mars and Jupiter appeared as a single bright object. The next nearly as close alignment will be in 2348.

This conjunction also aligns with the Perseid meteor shower, one of the most brilliant meteor showers of the year, and can be observed without the need for binoculars or telescopes.