HONOLULU (KHON2) — The KHON2 News desk in Hawai’i received lots of calls on March 1 about a duo of strange lights floating in the sky.
The first call came from Discovery Harbor. Two more calls came from Mākaha. Another came from Waikīkī.
After inspecting the photos and videos that viewers sent, KHON2 reached out to astronomers from the University of Hawai’i for some answers.
Rest assured, it is not aliens invading paradise. According to the UH astronomy department, the two lights are Venus and Jupiter in a conjunction event.
“No, it’s not aliens. It’s not a spy balloon. It’s just those planets. There are planetary friends, Venus and Jupiter. And, it’s what’s called a conjunction, which is when two planets appear very close together in the sky. So, right now, they’re separated by about half a degree, which is about the width of the full moon,” said Roy Gal, UH, University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy.
Gal explained this in layman’s terms for us.
“Because the planets are in sort of orbit in a plane around the sign, it’s kind of like looking at cars on a racetrack passing each other occasionally, you know. They’ll line up, and they’ll be really close together. And, other times, they’ll just be all spread out. So, right now, these two racing planets are passing each other,” explained Gal.
