In this article
Two very different neighbours
Mars is a small rocky planet with a rusty tint, and its brightness swings widely depending on how close it is to Earth. Jupiter is a giant of gas and is reliably brilliant, second only to Venus among the planets. Side by side they make a lovely colour contrast, the red-orange point next to the white one.
If Mars is faint when the conjunction comes, Jupiter will dominate the view and Mars will sit beside it like a small ember. If Mars is close to Earth, it can match Jupiter and the pair look almost like twins in different colours.
How often they meet
Mars moves faster than Jupiter along the ecliptic but much slower than Venus, so the pair meets only about every two years. That makes it rarer than a Venus and Jupiter meeting and gives each one a little more weight. As with every pair in the table, some conjunctions fall too close to the Sun to see.
The gap can be a few degrees or a fraction of one. One degree is about two full Moon widths, so a gap well under that makes them look like a double star.
How to see it
Check the table above for the viewing note. An evening sky conjunction is to the west after sunset, and a morning sky one is to the east before dawn. Look for the brighter, cream-white light, which is Jupiter, and then for the orange point close beside it.
With binoculars you can fit both in the same field. Jupiter shows up to four small moons in a line, and Mars appears as a tiny, slightly orange dot. A telescope can show more, but Mars only reveals real detail near its closest approaches to Earth.
A line-of-sight effect
Mars and Jupiter are hundreds of millions of kilometres apart even at conjunction, with the asteroid belt lying between their orbits. They are not interacting, and the meeting has no effect on Earth. It is a lovely alignment from our point of view and nothing more.
Tradition and astrology
Traditional astrology links Mars with energy and drive and Jupiter with expansion and confidence, and reads their meeting as a surge of ambition. That is symbolism, and astrology has no demonstrated scientific basis. For more on these planets, see the Mars retrograde and Jupiter retrograde pages.
Questions people ask
How often do Mars and Jupiter meet?
Roughly every two years. The table above lists each one with the gap and where to look.
How do I tell them apart?
Jupiter is whiter and usually brighter. Mars has an orange tint and twinkles a little more.
Are they close in space?
No. They stay hundreds of millions of kilometres apart, and the asteroid belt lies between them.