Mars and Jupiter Get Chummy in the Night Sky. The Planets Won’t Get This Close Again until 2033

 This combination image, created from two photos provided by NASA, shows Jupiter pictured on April 3, 2017, left, and Mars pictured on Aug. 26, 2003, right. (NASA via AP)
This combination image, created from two photos provided by NASA, shows Jupiter pictured on April 3, 2017, left, and Mars pictured on Aug. 26, 2003, right. (NASA via AP)
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Mars and Jupiter Get Chummy in the Night Sky. The Planets Won’t Get This Close Again until 2033

 This combination image, created from two photos provided by NASA, shows Jupiter pictured on April 3, 2017, left, and Mars pictured on Aug. 26, 2003, right. (NASA via AP)
This combination image, created from two photos provided by NASA, shows Jupiter pictured on April 3, 2017, left, and Mars pictured on Aug. 26, 2003, right. (NASA via AP)

Mars and Jupiter are cozying up in the night sky for their closest rendezvous this decade.

They’ll be so close Wednesday, at least from our perspective, that just a sliver of moon could fit between them. In reality, our solar system’s biggest planet and its dimmer, reddish neighbor will be more than 350 million miles (575 million kilometers) apart in their respective orbits.

The two planets will reach their minimum separation — one-third of 1 degree or about one-third the width of the moon — during daylight hours Wednesday in most of the Americas, Europe and Africa. But they won’t appear that much different hours or even a day earlier when the sky is dark, said Jon Giorgini of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

The best views will be in the eastern sky, toward constellation Taurus, before daybreak. Known as planetary conjunctions, these comic pairings happen only every three years or so.

"Such events are mostly items of curiosity and beauty for those watching the sky, wondering what the two bright objects so close together might be," he said in an email. "The science is in the ability to accurately predict the events years in advance."

Their orbits haven’t brought them this close together, one behind the other, since 2018. And it won’t happen again until 2033, when they’ll get even chummier.

The closest in the past 1,000 years was in 1761, when Mars and Jupiter appeared to the naked eye as a single bright object, according to Giorgini. Looking ahead, the year 2348 will be almost as close.

This latest link up of Mars and Jupiter coincides with the Perseid meteor shower, one of the year's brightest showers. No binoculars or telescopes are needed.



Meet America’s Newest Giant Pandas, Yun Chuan and Xin Bao

 Xin Bao the female Panda sits in its enclosure at the San Diego Zoo prior to the opening of the new exhibit Panda Ridge Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, in San Diego. (AP)
Xin Bao the female Panda sits in its enclosure at the San Diego Zoo prior to the opening of the new exhibit Panda Ridge Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, in San Diego. (AP)
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Meet America’s Newest Giant Pandas, Yun Chuan and Xin Bao

 Xin Bao the female Panda sits in its enclosure at the San Diego Zoo prior to the opening of the new exhibit Panda Ridge Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, in San Diego. (AP)
Xin Bao the female Panda sits in its enclosure at the San Diego Zoo prior to the opening of the new exhibit Panda Ridge Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, in San Diego. (AP)

California’s governor flew in for the young bears’ debut. Throngs of media gathered inside the zoo, while the city of San Diego warned of traffic jams ahead of the much-anticipated event Thursday.

The San Diego Zoo rolled out the red carpet for the first public showing of its celebrity residents, who were already dressed in black-and-white attire. The two giant pandas, the first to enter the US in two decades, seemed unfazed by all the attention, sunbathing and chowing down on bamboo in their new home.

For years, the Chinese government has loaned pandas to zoos around the world in a practice called “panda diplomacy.” These fuzzy ambassadors have long been a symbol of the US-China friendship, ever since Beijing gifted a pair of pandas to the National Zoo in Washington, DC, in 1972.

But in recent years, China stopped renewing panda loans to zoos and calling back home the animals it had given to Western countries as relations soured. The San Diego Zoo’s previous pandas left in 2018 and 2019.

Then in February, the China Wildlife Conservation Association announced it was sending two more pandas to San Diego and also signing agreements with the zoo in the Spanish capital of Madrid, quelling fears that Beijing was ending its historic panda diplomacy. San Diego's pandas arrived in June and have been acclimating to their new home before being seen by the public.

“This is about something much deeper, much richer, than just the two beautiful pandas we celebrate,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said at the opening ceremony that included dancing, music, and remarks from Chinese ambassador Xie Feng, and other local officials. “It’s about celebrating our common humanity.”

For the occasion, Newsom proclaimed Aug. 8 as California Panda Day and recognized the San Diego Zoo as the first organization in the US to establish a cooperative panda conservation program with China.

Xie said he met someone on his flight who had traveled all the way from Washington, DC, to see the pandas.

“Two little panda fans from California wrote several letters to me proposing giving China grizzly bears to get pandas,” Xie said, eliciting laughs.

Only four other giant pandas currently reside in the United States, all at the zoo in Atlanta. However, the Smithsonian’s National Zoo will receive a new pair of pandas by the end of the year after its last bears returned to China last November. As part of the loan agreement, US zoos typically pay $1 million a year toward China’s wildfire conservation efforts, and all cubs born in the US must return to China by age 4.

Both pandas at the San Diego Zoo were born at the Wolong Shenshuping Panda Base in China’s Sichuan province.

Yun Chuan is a nearly five-year-old male panda described by the zoo as “mild-mannered, gentle and lovable.” He is the grandson of Bai Yun and Gao Gao, who both lived at the San Diego Zoo for more than a decade. His mother, Zhen Zhen, was the fourth cub born at the zoo.

Xin Bao is a nearly four-year-old female panda described by the zoo as a “gentle and witty introvert with a sweet round face and big ears.”

“Her name means a treasure of prosperity and abundance, and we hope she will bring you good luck,” Ambassador Xie said. He also spoke about China being California’s top trading partner as well as the large Chinese community in the state and the abundance of Chinese tourists.

Among the pandas' biggest fans are two kids who were proudly wearing “Panda Ridge” t-shirts and carrying plushies at the zoo Thursday morning.

“Pandas are their favorite animals, if you could only see what our house looks like in terms of stuffed animals,” their father James Metz said.

It was also his seven-year-old daughter's birthday, making it an extra special occasion. For weeks, the family has been eagerly watching live panda feeds from China in anticipation of the bears' arrival.

Yun Chuan and Xin Bao were hanging out and relaxing after eating, Metz said.

A portrait of one of the panda's grandmothers, who lived at the zoo for more than 20 years, was created by California-based artist Shepard Fairey, who is best known for designing the “Hope” imagery in former President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign.