Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru

Mangaluru, Sep 12: Three humans will pass between Jupiter and Saturn, or that is how it would appear from the earth resulting from the planetary movements.

When the sun sets in the coming days, planet Jupiter will shine brightly high up in the sky. One can start using a compass to look at the southern horizon and from there look up in the sky toward the north and the first brightest object (in fact, the brightest object this week) found will be Jupiter. Just to the east from Jupiter, the faint dot shining will be the ringed planet Saturn.

But on the evening of September 13, Jupiter’s brightness will be rivalled by a flying object carrying three men called the International Space Station. A joint venture by several countries and space agencies, the ISS flies around the earth about 15 times per day and has been doing so for the past 21 years. Flying at an altitude of 410 km, the ISS is a place where scientists and astronauts perform various experiments in microgravity and with astronauts staying up to a year onboard the space station.

Currently, onboard are Anatoli Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner from Russia and Chris Cassidy from the USA who are in orbit and on September 13 at 7.30 pm, one can spot the ISS carrying these three men, rising from the southwestern horizon moving toward the north-east direction. As seen from Mangaluru, the ISS will pass very close to Jupiter and as Udupi lies higher in latitude, people can witness the ISS pass very close to Saturn with both the places witnessing these three humans passing between the two gas giant planets.

With the ISS shining at magnitude -3.5, Jupiter at -2.48 and Saturn at 0.38, ISS will be the brightest object in the night sky between 7.30 pm to 7.33 pm on the said evening. Amateur astronomers and astrophotographers can catch a glimpse of this rare event of three humans passing between the two planets, Poornaprajna Amateur Astronomers’ Club wishes every Clear Skies to witness this event.