Venus Is Actually Getting Closer To The Earth
A WeatherBrains listener had a great question:
“Venus is so bright tonight it looks closer. I know we’re nearing the end of the Venus viewing time in the evening sky, is it getting closer?”
Venus is getting closer and will continue to do so until the end of March. Each night this week Venus will be closer to Earth by more than half a million miles. That will slow to a quarter million closer each day by mid-March. Though Venus is getting closer, it won’t be getting any brighter. This is because of Venus’s phases. Like our Moon and the fellow inner planet Mercury, Venus has phases as varying amounts of light is shown on its cloud tops it makes its way around the Sun.
As Venus orbits closer to Earth, it is less and less illuminated by the Sun from our vantage point here on Earth
Picture it this way. When viewed from above, our solar system moves like cars racing counterclockwise around a track. As Venus in lane 2 catches up with Earth in lane 3 it becomes less and less visible because this track is lit from a single source right in the middle. By the time Venus passes Earth on the inside, nearly all the sun’s light is on the opposite side from Earth.
Currently waxing crescent Venus is visible with 25% illumination. By mid-March Venus will dim by an order of magnitude with just 1% of the planet illuminated from our vantage point here on Earth.
Category: Spacey Stuff
About the Author (Author Profile)
Tony Rice is a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador and the voice and brains behinds the weekly Astronomy Report on the WeatherBrains podcast. He grew up in Southern California where he watched the Space Shuttles being build and landed nearby and was hooked. Tony brings weather and space together to communicate the excitement of space exploration and promote a greater appreciation for Earth sciences.Subscribe
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