Christmas Star 2021 'Great Conjunction': When will star of Bethlehem be visible in 2021?

Ahead of Christmas on December 25, one of the rarest celestial events for astronomers and sky gazers remain the Christmas Star, also known as the Star of Bentham. On 20 December 2020, the solar system graced cosmophiles with a cosmic event that was witnessed nearly 800 years ago. The series refers to Jupiter and Saturn aligning while appearing closest together from Earth's vantage in the evening sky. 

Where is the Christmas Star in the sky?

The event sometimes referred to as The Great Conjunction, occurs roughly after every 19 to 20 years and 202 was the closest the planets lined up in the night sky. The Earth, Jupiter and Saturn appeared to be less than a diameter of a full moon apart. Also, for the entire four weeks of December 2020, the Christmas Star was visible from everywhere on Earth for an hour after sunset in the northern hemisphere. 

The Christmas Star is said to diminish or progressively dim as it headed towards the Sun around January 3, 2022, however, it is not visible to the naked eye since January 2021.

What is Christmas Star?

Dr Daniel Brown, an associate professor in astronomy at Nottingham Tent University, explains, "The star of Bethlehem is part of the traditional Christian Christmas story throughout the world. But did these events happen in some form or manner and specifically did the star of Bethlehem actually exist? This is a question that astronomers have asked themselves since the times of Johannes Kepler in 1614 and we might now have come to a possible conclusion."

Will Christmas Star be visible in 2021?

If one has missed out on the Christmas Star, Bentham Star, in 2020 the next Great Conjunction is set to occur on March 15, 2080.

"Alignments between these (Jupiter and Saturn) planets are rather rare, occurring every 20 years or so," Patrick Hartigan, an astronomer at Rice University said.