Earth, Venus, and Jupiter Line Up

There is a particular word with no true vowels perfectly explaining the concept of three planets lining up: syzygy. As of late June and early July 2015, the solar system currently experiences a syzygy with Earth, Venus, and Jupiter forming almost a straight line across their orbits. The image depicting this phenomenon above is derived from the compact disc Planetarium software, version 1.8 (© 1998 JC Research, Toxsoft), which still displays updated astronomy data despite its 20th-century copyright year. Another fantastic facet of the syzygy event, Jupiter and Venus displayed their celestial spheres in the June 30th night sky less than 1/3 degree apart from each other - less than the moon's diameter. While Jupiter and Venus appear near each other often, they usually do not come as close as they did on June 30th! The zoomed-in image below depicts Jupiter and Venus' close proximity and location in the constellation Leo.

P.S. Happy Independence Day in the United States!