The expected approach of Mars and Venus to the Sun can be observed in images from space telescopes starting today.

Both planets closest to Earth, Venus and Mars, currently moving toward an exceptionally rare conjunction with the Sun in early next year, have become visible today in images from the LASCO spacecraft, which are now publicly available.

Venus appeared in the images a week ago, on December 3-4, as an exceptionally bright star, overshadowing and even partially obscuring the images, emerging to the right of the Sun. Tonight, the second planet, Mars, entered the field of view from the other side, confirming by its very appearance the inexorable laws of celestial mechanics that are currently pushing these bodies toward each other. In less than a month, from January 6-8, during Christmas, the two celestial bodies will be closest to the Sun in the sky, at closest approach, less than one degree—an exceptionally rare event, the next occurrence of which will have to wait more than 200 years, until the summer of 2267.

You won't be able to see this unique Star of Bethlehem directly on Christmas Eve. The conjunction forms in the daytime sky and will be hidden below the horizon at night. But if you see the Sun in the sky on the day before Christmas, perhaps hidden by clouds, know that right above you, at the same point as the life-giving star, both of humanity's main planets—the planet of love, Venus, and the planet of war, Mars—are converging.