Two bright lights side by side before dawn? It’s Jupiter meeting Mars

5 min read

In mid-November, two bright points of light sit close together in the predawn sky: one dazzling, the other fainter and orange. They aren’t objects flying in formation. They’re Jupiter and Mars, which appear closest together on November 16. Here’s why planets so often get reported as UFOs, and how to check what you’re looking at.

What to see on November 16

Jupiter and Mars reach their closest point in the sky around 3 a.m. Central European Time on November 16. At that moment they're about 1.2 degrees apart, roughly two and a half times the width of the full Moon. To the naked eye, they look like a bright double star.

You don't have to go out on that exact night. On November 15 and 17 they're barely farther apart, and from November 13 to 19 they stay within 1.7 degrees of each other.

The pair rises in the east before midnight, climbs higher through the night, and stands high in the southern sky by dawn.

The two planets are easy to tell apart:

Jupiter: the brighter point (magnitude −2.1). It outshines every star, even Sirius.
Mars: fainter (magnitude +0.7) and noticeably orange. Facing south, it sits just over a degree above Jupiter and slightly to the left.
Regulus: the brightest star in Leo, about 4.4 degrees from Jupiter. Together the three form a small triangle, which tightens further by November 22.

The closeness is only an illusion. Mars is about 195 million kilometers from us and Jupiter about 790 million kilometers; we just happen to see them in the same direction.

Why people mistake them for UFOs

Bright planets are among the most common UFO misidentifications. Besides Venus, Jupiter is a frequent culprit, and Mars shows up in reports regularly too. A few of their traits are especially misleading:

Stationary, yet "moving": stare at a bright point in the dark long enough and the tiny movements of your eyes can make it seem to drift. This is called the autokinetic effect.
Shimmering and changing color: near the horizon, light passes through a thicker layer of air, and turbulent air can distort a planet's light too. The point may quiver and seem to wander back and forth.
"It's following me": a planet is so far away that from a moving car it stays fixed in the sky while houses and trees rush past. That makes it look as if it's keeping pace.
Your phone makes it worse: zoom in on a tiny, distant light and the camera can't focus, turning the point into a pulsating disc. We cover this effect in a separate article.

When the "UFO" was a planet

North Miami, 1960: on the evening of May 25, a Florida woman and her daughter watched a bright, color-changing light bob up and down for more than an hour, and a neighbor backed up their account. The U.S. Air Force concluded they had seen Jupiter: the planet stood in the east-southeast at the time, was close to Earth, and no comparably bright stars were in that part of the sky, so it looked unusually bright and close. The report attributed the apparent movement to atmospheric conditions.
Port Angeles, 2010: in the fall of 2010, dispatchers in the small Washington State city fielded several calls in one morning about a bright object hovering in the southeast. It was Jupiter.
Glasgow, 2021: shortly after midnight on July 13, a rookie Scottish police officer reported that a drone was following the patrol car. The officer tried to shake it off through a shopping center and along the M8 motorway, but the light stayed put. Back at the station, more experienced colleagues finally explained that it was Jupiter.
Venus and Jupiter, 2023: when the two planets drew close together in March 2023, social media filled with photos and videos. According to skeptic researcher Mick West, the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), a U.S. civilian group, received at least six reports in 24 hours that actually described the two planets.

How to recognize them

Check the direction and time. In November, the two lights rise in the east before midnight and reach the south by dawn. A star chart app will show you in seconds what's in that part of the sky.
Watch for several minutes. Planets don't suddenly vanish or speed up. Over the night, they drift slowly across the sky along with the stars.
Compare them. One point is much brighter, the other orange, and Regulus sits nearby.
Use binoculars. With strong magnification, Jupiter's largest moons may appear as tiny dots beside it.
If it still doesn't fit, for example the light blinks, moves fast or is somewhere else in the sky, see our guide to checking sightings, which walks you through the most common explanations with a decision tree.

What else is in the morning sky

From mid-November, four planets line up on a diagonal above the southeastern horizon before sunrise. Lowest, just above the horizon, is Mercury (you'll need a flat, clear view), then Venus, and higher still Jupiter and Mars. Venus reaches its greatest brilliancy in the morning sky on November 29. We cover it in a separate article.

The Moon also visits the pair several times: it forms a tight trio with them on November 30 and December 26–27, and a triangle on December 28.

The sober take

What's certain? The November 16 Jupiter–Mars conjunction can be predicted precisely from astronomical calculations. The two planets appear about 1.2 degrees apart, but in reality hundreds of millions of kilometers separate them.

Why does it lead to reports? Two bright points make an unusual sight. Near the horizon their light can shimmer, and a light you stare at for a long time seems to move. During earlier planetary conjunctions, UFO reports demonstrably increased.

How to recognize them:

two points of light side by side, one much brighter, the other orange
no blinking like an aircraft's colored navigation lights
they drift slowly across the sky with the stars over hours
through binoculars, Jupiter's moons may appear beside it

What it doesn't rule out: not every bright pair of lights is these two planets. If the light is elsewhere in the sky, moves fast or suddenly disappears, other explanations may fit, such as an aircraft, a drone or a sky lantern. We cover these in separate articles.