Stargazers around the world have shared images of the crescent Moon approaching Venus in a dazzling celestial phenomenon.
Venus, the brightest and hottest planet in the solar system, has been climbing higher since October and will be at its most visible until end of this month.
On Sunday, the four-day-old crescent Moon was about two degrees away from Venus. The Earth’s natural satellite will also pass by Saturn and Jupiter until November 11.
Astrophotographers and stargazers captured the astronomical event during sunset and in the night sky.
“The Moon and Venus setting behind some distant mountains, as viewed from my backyard. I took thousands of pictures tonight,” Andrew McCarthy, an astrophotographer in the US, tweeted as he shared images.
The International Astronomical Centre, which has its headquarters in the UAE, also shared an image of the hot planet on Sunday.
Venus has been making headlines worldwide lately, as space agencies shift their focus to the ‘hellish’ planet again after decades.
Scientists are interested in studying the planet because of its mysterious atmospheric conditions that trap heat, similar to the greenhouse effect on Earth.
Research shows that the planet may have been habitable billions of years ago, but heat from the Sun trapped in the atmosphere caused Venus’s surface water to boil away.
The Earth’s neighbour was explored before by the former Soviet Union and Nasa in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Earlier this year, Nasa announced two new missions to the planet by 2030. Europe and India have also announced Venus missions.
The UAE plans to achieve a Venus fly-by within this decade and use the planet’s gravity to reach the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter – known as the main asteroid belt.
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