Earth flies between Jupiter and the sun January 10

Alex Hayes2 weeks ago

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Two images of a banded planet. One planet is bigger than the other. — View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Nishat Khan in Ontario, Canada, shared this image of Jupiter from September 16, 2024, comparing it with one taken a few months later on December 14. Thank you, Nishat! December 2024 was Jupiter’s last opposition, the last time Earth flew between this planet and the sun. At that time, it was at its closest to Earth and so appeared biggest in our sky (through the eyepieces of earthly telescopes). Jupiter will be closest to Earth again on January 9, 2026. It’ll reach opposition on January 10, 2026.

Jupiter in 2025-2026: Earth will fly between the biggest planet in our solar system – Jupiter – and the sun on January 10, 2026. At that time, this mighty world will be most opposite the sun from Earth for this year. It’ll be rising in the east as the sun sets in the west. Astronomers will call it Jupiter’s opposition to the sun. The early months of 2026 will be a great time to observe Jupiter!
The exact time of Jupiter’s opposition is 9 UTC (3 a.m. CDT) on January 10, 2026.
Jupiter will be closest to Earth one day before its opposition, on January 9, 2026. At that time, its distance will be 393 million miles/ 633 million km/ 35 light-minutes from Earth. Read: Why is Jupiter closest before opposition?
Opposition constellation in 2026: Gemini the Twins.
Brightness at opposition: Magnitude -2.7. Jupiter shines as the 4th-brightest object in the sky, after the sun, moon and planet Venus. In mid-January 2026, Venus is behind the sun. So Jupiter will be the brightest starlike object visible for most of the night.
Angular size at opposition (as seen through a telescope): 46.6 arcseconds.
Through binoculars (anytime): Jupiter reveals a bright disk. If you look closely, you’ll see several of its four large moons – called the Galilean satellites – appearing as pinpoints of light, arrayed in a line that bisects the giant planet. Read: How to see and enjoy Jupiter’s moons.

A huge banded planet next to tiny Earth. — Here’s a visual comparison of the size difference between Earth and Jupiter. More than one thousand Earths could fit inside the giant planet Jupiter. Here, the Apollo 17 mission to the moon acquired this image of Earth on December 7, 1972. The Cassini spacecraft, on its way to Saturn, captured this image of Jupiter on December 29, 2000. Image via Brian1908 at Wikimedia Commons.

How often does Jupiter reach opposition?

Jupiter takes 12 earthly years to orbit the sun once. So, the giant planet comes to opposition roughly every 13 months. It didn’t have an opposition in 2025.

2024 Jupiter opposition – December 7
2026 Jupiter opposition – January 10
2027 Jupiter opposition – February 10

Earth takes 12 months to travel once around the sun relative to Jupiter. So, according to our earthly calendars, Jupiter’s opposition comes about a month later each year. Add to that the fact that we recognize 12 constellations of the zodiac. And there are 12 months in a year. So Jupiter appears in front of a new zodiacal constellation at each year’s opposition. This year, it’s in front of Gemini the Twins.

For the fanciful, the giant planet Jupiter is like a real giant, stepping one by one around the zodiacal constellations, over the period of its 12-year orbit.

Sky chart showing the constellation Gemini with radial arrows near star Castor, with Jupiter nearby. — The constellation of Gemini the Twins is high in the January evening sky. And in January 2026, the bright planet Jupiter is near the 2 brightest stars of Gemini. These stars are golden Pollux and white Castor. Pollux is the slightly brighter one. But Jupiter outshines them both! Chart via EarthSky.

Recent Jupiter events

December 7, 2024: Jupiter came to opposition in front of the constellation Taurus.
February 4, 2025: Jupiter ended retrograde motion, a sign that the best time to observe Jupiter had ended. But the planet remained in the night sky through April 2025. In May, it was nearing the sunset glare, becoming increasingly difficult to see.
June 24, 2025: Jupiter was at solar conjunction, or behind the sun as seen from Earth. Afterwards, it emerged in the morning sky in July 2025.
November 11, 2025: Jupiter began retrograde motion, that is, westward motion on the sky’s dome, a sign that opposition lay just ahead.
January 9, 2026: Jupiter at perigee, or closest to Earth for 2026.
January 10, 2026: Jupiter at opposition, or opposite the sun as seen from Earth.

A bright starlike object, and a fainter one, with a silhouette of a person reaching for them. — If you look closely, you can see another dot there next to Jupiter … that’s Saturn. EarthSky Community member VegaStar C of Liard Photography in France captured this image during the so-called Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 2020. The conjunction is called “great” because these are the 2 largest planets in our solar system, each pursuing its own wide orbit around the sun. A single orbit for Jupiter takes about 12 Earth-years. A single orbit for Saturn takes about 30 Earth-years. We saw Jupiter and Saturn together in this way in 2020 because 2020 was the year Jupiter passed Saturn on the inside track around the sun, something it does only every 20 years.

Sphere chart showing a dot, Jupiter, above the left rim, the eastern horizon. Above the southwestern rim is a dot, Saturn. — Jupiter and Saturn can still be seen together in our evening sky. But now Jupiter has pulled far ahead of Saturn in the race of the planets around the sun. So it is half a sky away from Saturn now. As seen from across Earth in January 2026, bright Jupiter will climb higher in the east as darkness falls. It’ll be visible through dawn most of the month, setting before sunrise near the month’s end. Meanwhile, throughout January, Saturn will be sinking lower in the west each night after sunset. It’ll set soon after sunset by the month’s end. Notice that these 2 planets lie along the path the sun travels in the daytime … as always, that’s the green line on our charts. Chart via EarthSky.

A failed star?

Especially around the time of opposition, it’s fun to think of Jupiter as a failed star. Our sun contains some 99.86% of all the mass in our solar system. Jupiter contains 0.1% of the solar system’s mass. And all the other planets (including Earth), moons, asteroids and comets in our solar system contain 0.04% of the solar system’s mass. So Jupiter is much more massive than all the other planets combined. And, for that reason, we sometimes speak of Jupiter as a failed star.

It’s failed in the sense that it’s not massive enough or hot enough inside to spark thermonuclear fusion reactions, the process that enables stars to shine. 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. Instead, it shines by reflected sunlight.

Yet in January 2026 – as bright Jupiter rises in the east 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 tiny 2nd sun, all night long.

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

Simple diagram of orbits, showing Earth between an outer planet and the sun. — Opposition happens when Earth flies between an outer planet, like Jupiter, and the sun. Illustration via Chris Peat/ Heavens-Above. Used with permission.

EarthSky Community Photos

Banded planet. — View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Jupiter as captured by David Hoskin in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, on December 7, 2024. David said: “Jupiter is always a lovely sight, especially when at its brightest. The Galilean moon Europa is to the left of the planet.” Thank you, David!

Slightly fuzzy large banded planet with small white dot nearby. — View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Aurelian Neacsu of Visina, Dambovita, Romania, captured this image of Jupiter on August 22, 2023, and wrote: “The bright dot visible on the right bottom corner is not a planet’s satellite; it’s the star Sigma Arietis.” Thank you, Aurelian.

Got a picture of Jupiter? We’d love to see it. Submit them here.

Bottom line: Giant Jupiter is closest to Earth for 2026 on January 9. Then Earth will fly between the sun and Jupiter – bringing Jupiter to opposition – January 10.

Read: Why is Jupiter closest to Earth 1 day before opposition?

Deborah Byrd

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About the Author:

Our Editor-in-Chief Deborah Byrd works to keep all the astronomy balls in the air between EarthSky’s website, YouTube page and social media platforms. She’s the primary editor of our popular daily newsletter and a frequent host of EarthSky livestreams. Deborah created the EarthSky radio series in 1991 and founded EarthSky.org in 1994. Prior to that, she had worked for the University of Texas McDonald Observatory since 1976, and created and produced their Star Date radio series. She has won a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting and science communities, including having an asteroid named 3505 Byrd in her honor. In 2020, she won the Education Prize from the American Astronomical Society, the largest organization of professional astronomers in North America. A science communicator and educator since 1976, Byrd believes in science as a force for good in the world and a vital tool for the 21st century. “Being an EarthSky editor is like hosting a big global party for cool nature-lovers,” she says.

Earth flies between Jupiter and the sun January 10

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