Jupiter in 2024: Starting in June 2024, you may notice Jupiter in the morning twilight. It’s the very bright object ascending in the east earlier each morning. Indeed, it’s brighter than all the stars!
Jupiter will reach opposition at 21 UTC (4 p.m. CDT) on December 7, 2024. That’s when Jupiter will be most opposite the sun in our sky. At midnight your local time as seen from around the globe, Jupiter will be shining at its highest in the sky, more or less where the sun was at your local noon. At that time, the sun will be below your feet. It’ll all happen as Earth flies between the sun and Jupiter.
Jupiter will be closest to Earth at 10 UTC (5 a.m. CDT) on December 6, 2024. At that time, its distance will be 380 million miles/ 611 million km/ 34 light-minutes from Earth.
Opposition constellation: Taurus the Bull.
Brightness at opposition: Magnitude -2.8. Jupiter will shine as the 4th-brightest object in the sky, after the sun, the moon and the planet Venus. It’ll be the brightest starlike object visible for most of the night (after Venus sets in the evening sky).
Size at opposition (as seen through a telescope): 48.2 arcseconds across.
Through binoculars (anytime): Jupiter reveals a bright disk. If you look closely, you’ll see several of its four Galilean moons appearing as pinpoints of light, arrayed in a line that bisects the giant planet.
Read: Why is Jupiter closest to Earth 1 day before opposition?
Jupiter finder charts for July 2024
Finder charts for August 2024
From mid-July through mid-August, red Mars will slowly approach bright Jupiter in Taurus the Bull. Then, on the morning of August 14, Mars will be less than the width of a full moon from Jupiter.
How often does Jupiter reach opposition?
Jupiter takes 12 earthly years to orbit the sun once. So, Jupiter comes to opposition roughly every 13 months. By the same token, that’s how long Earth takes to travel once around the sun relative to Jupiter. Therefore, according to our earthly calendars Jupiter’s opposition comes about a month later each year. Also, add to that the fact that there are 12 constellations of the zodiac. And there are 12 months in a year. So Jupiter is actually in a new zodiacal constellation at each year’s opposition (last year, Aries; this year, Taurus).
2023 Jupiter opposition – November 3
2024 Jupiter opposition – December 7
2026 Jupiter opposition – January 10
2027 Jupiter opposition – February 10
Jupiter events in 2024
January 1, 2024: Jupiter was at perihelion or closest point to the sun for 2024.
May 18, 2024: Jupiter was at solar conjunction, or behind the sun as seen from Earth.
October 9, 2024: Jupiter begins retrograde motion, that is, westward motion on the sky’s dome, a sign that opposition is just ahead.
December 6, 2024: Jupiter at perigee, or closest to Earth for 2024.
December 7, 2024: Jupiter at opposition, or opposite the sun as seen from Earth.
February 4, 2025: Jupiter will end retrograde motion, a sign that the best time to observe Jupiter is ending. However, the planet will remain somewhere in the night sky through April 2025. Then it’ll emerge in the morning sky in July 2025.
View from above the solar system, December 2024
A failed star
Perhaps you know that Jupiter isn’t a rocky planet like Earth. In fact, it’s more like a failed star, not massive enough or hot enough inside to spark thermonuclear fusion reactions, but some 2 1/2 times more massive than all the other planets in our solar system combined. Jupiter is big! But, without that thermonuclear reaction it can’t shine as stars do.
Overall, you’d need some 80 Jupiters – rolled into a ball – to be hot enough inside to spark fusion. So, Jupiter isn’t a star. That is, it doesn’t shine with its own light, but instead by reflected sunlight.
Yet in late November 2024 – as bright Jupiter rises in the east more or less opposite the sunset – you can stand on Earth all night and peer toward bright Jupiter in our sky. And indeed, you can imagine that, if the giant planet did have enough mass to shine as stars do, then around Jupiter’s opposition, we’d have no night at all. Instead, Jupiter would shine as a 2nd sun, all night long.
Read more: How to see Jupiter’s moons
For precise sun and Jupiter rising times at your location:
Old Farmer’s Almanac (U.S. and Canada)
timeanddate.com (worldwide)
Stellarium (online planetarium program)
In-the-sky information and finder chart for your location
EarthSky Community Photos
Got a picture of Jupiter? We’d love to see it. Submit them here.
Bottom line: Giant Jupiter is closest to Earth for 2024 on December 6. Then Earth will fly between the sun and Jupiter – bringing Jupiter to opposition – on December 7.
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Deborah Byrd
