Starwatch: Mars and Jupiter meet at dawn

Starwatch 2018 Jan 15 Jupiter and Mars

A pair of bright planets reward early risers this week. Mars and Jupiter are close together in the constellation Libra. Despite being more than three times closer to Earth, Mars will appear dimmer than Jupiter. This is because Jupiter is 21 times the diameter of Mars, and possesses brightly reflective clouds. Mars’s frozen deserts give the planet a conspicuous red colour to the naked eye, while Jupiter appears bright white. The chart shows the positions for 06:00 GMT on 16 January. To find the planetary pair, look SSE in the pre-dawn sky. The planets were at their closest on 6 January but remain a nice pairing this week. They will continue to be visible through to the end of the month and into early February, although they will be drawing ever further away from one another.