Google Doodle celebrates Winter Solstice 2020 and the Great Conjunction: All you need to know

Team Udayavani, Dec 21, 2020, 11:29 AM IST

Google doodle celebrated Winter Solstice 2020 and The Great Conjunction with an animated graphic on December 21.

Winter Solstice marks the beginning of Christmas and New Year celebrations worldwide. It marks the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, when the sun appears at its most southerly position, directly overhead at the faraway Tropic of Capricorn.

After Winter Solstice, days start becoming longer and nights shorter for people in the Northern Hemisphere and it’s just the reverse in the Southern Hemisphere

The Great Conjunction, a visual overlap of Saturn and Jupiter in the night sky, is a rare phenomenon that the world will witness today.

Saturn and Jupiter will be within .1 degrees of each other. While the great conjunction occurs roughly every 20 years, the last time the event was as easily visible in the sky as it will be for this winter solstice was nearly 800 years ago.

An hour after sunset, Jupiter will look like a bright star and be easily visible. Saturn will be slightly fainter and will appear slightly above and to the left of Jupiter until December 21, when Jupiter will overtake it and they will reverse positions in the sky.