On 12 November 2026, the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) showcased a striking view of the night sky over the Tatra Mountains in Poland, where the crescent Moon sits above the peaks while the bright planet Venus appears close to the horizon. To the left of Venus, the luminous star Spica, a prominent member of the Virgo constellation, is also visible, creating a rare celestial meeting.
Such alignments are known as conjunctions, a term derived from the Greek word for “wandering star.” As planets move along their orbits, they can appear to pass close to fixed stars from Earth’s perspective, a predictable event governed by celestial mechanics.
Spica is one of the brightest stars in the night sky and lies roughly 250 light‑years from Earth. Astronomers first discovered in 1890 that Spica is a binary system, with two massive blue stars orbiting each other every four days. Earlier this year, new observations revealed that the system is actually a triple, adding a third star to the complex.
The image was captured by Włodzimierz Bubak and accompanied by an explanatory note from a team of professional astronomers, including Cecilia Chirenti, Robert Nemiroff, Jerry Bonnell and Keighley Rockcliffe. The APOD is produced by the Astrophysics Science Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, in partnership with NASA Science Activation and Michigan Technological University.
<small>Source: NASA — read the original story there.</small>
