Venus, Jupiter, Mercury to come closest on May 28

Washington: May 28th, 2013, Venus and Jupiter will pass within one degree of one other (about twice the apparent size of the full moon, it has been predicted.

And a little further above the horizon Mercury will also put in an appearance. Although they may look close from our point of view, in reality Jupiter will be 660 million kilometers further away than Venus, and 744 million kilometers further away than Mercury, which is the closest of all of them come to us. Mercury is always an elusive planet but the 28th will be a great evening to try and spot it low in the west after sunset. This beauty of the planetary conjunction could be spotted after sunset when the western sky starts to go dark. To find them, look out for two bright `stars`; the lowest will be Jupiter, above and brighter will be Venus and higher up and a little fainter than both of them will be Mercury. Astronomers are able to predict such celestial events, thanks to Johannes Kepler `s laws of planetary motion, which he documented back in the first few decades of the 17th Century. Using these laws, which fundamentally come from the laws of gravitation, allows astronomers to predict with incredible accuracy how the planets move. ANI