Venus and Jupiter will be visible to the naked eye above Ireland this week, say astronomers

As the Northern Lights hysteria begins to quieten down, skygazers are in for another treat this week.

Astronomy Ireland founder David Moore has said that Venus and Jupiter will “outshine all the of the stars in the sky” this Wednesday and Thursday, as they pass extremely close to one another between sunset and 8pm.

Speaking to The Independent about the pending phenomenon, the astronomer said:

"I can't remember ever seeing Jupiter and Venus this close in the evening sky and to have two brilliant objects so close together is bound to startle the general public as they look over in the west when the suns go down.”

Venus is 200 million kilometres from us, while Jupiter is nearly 900 million kilometres away, and although Jupiter is the dimmer of the pair, it's "actually a dozen times wider than Venus", David added.

Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system, with surface temperatures of about 900 degrees Fahrenheit (475 degrees Celsius) – hot enough to melt lead. The surface is a rusty colour, peppered with intensely crunched mountains and thousands of large volcanoes.

Meanwhile, Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system by far - more than twice the size of all the other planets combined. The planet is surrounded by dozens of moons and has several rings, but unlike the famous rings of Saturn, Jupiter’s rings are very faint and made of dust, not ice.

Header image via Instagram/nasa 

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