Skygazers can see Mercury passing on the far side of the Sun on March 17

Gulf Today Report

After sharing a cosmic ‘kiss’ on Wednesday night, Jupiter and Venus were scheduled to once again appear close together in the night’s sky on Thursday.

It is one of several night sky events noted by Nasa for March, which include a full Moon on 7 March and a superior conjunction of Mercury on 17 March.

On Friday, March 17, 2023, the planet Mercury will be passing on the far side of the Sun as seen from Earth, called superior conjunction. Mercury will be shifting from the morning sky to the evening sky and will begin emerging from the glow of the dusk on the western horizon in late March

The conjunction between Jupiter and Venus is the closest that the two planets will come for viewers from Earth until 2039.

At their closest point, Jupiter and Venus will be just half a degree apart – about the diameter of a full moon – despite being more than 600 million km (400 million miles) away from each other in the Solar System.

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The stream, scheduled to start at 6.30pm GMT on Thursday, is titled ‘The Kiss between Venus and Jupiter’.

On Thursday night, the bright star Pollux, which forms part of the Gemini constellation, was also scheduled to appear near the Moon.