NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Venus will pass between the Earth and sun on Saturday during what’s called an inferior conjunction.

But don’t plan on seeing the linkup. The sight is extremely difficult to spot without special equipment and a trained eye.

“The glare from the sun makes it really, really difficult to see,” said Michelle Nichols with Chicago’s Adler Planetarium.

A conjunction happens when two celestial bodies appear close together in the sky. It could be two planets, or a planet and the sun. An inferior conjunction of Venus happens when the planet swings between the sun and Earth.

Such an alignment happens about every 19 months because of how Venus and Earth orbit the sun. The moment of inferior conjunction happens around 9 p.m. EDT.

“Some people call that a Venus kiss because we’re extremely close together,” said astronomer Geary Albright with James Madison University.

Venus has phases just like the moon. Before and after the conjunction, Venus looks like a thin crescent — though only telescopes can see it. Those looking for signs of the transition can watch Venus move from the evening to morning sky Sunday.

In the nights leading up to the conjunction, find a flat area and look near the horizon just after sunset to glimpse Venus before it sets. It appears as one of the brightest objects in the sky.

After the conjunction, Venus will be visible in the morning sky just before sunrise. Take precaution to not stare directly at the sun.

While this weekend’s event isn’t much of a visual spectacle, scientists say it’s an opportunity to track how the planets shift in space.

“Get a chance to get to know Venus,” said Nichols.

Paul McCartney’s “The Kiss of Venus” was partly inspired by a book chapter describing the inferior conjunction. And two upcoming NASA missions will put a spotlight on Venus, investigating how it formed and why it turned out so different from Earth.

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MIAMI — A soccer-loving nun from Brazil is believed to have become the world’s oldest living person at nearly 117 following the recent death of a woman from Japan.

Sister Inah Canabarro was so skinny growing up that many didn’t think she would survive childhood, said LongeviQuest, an organization that tracks supercentenarians around the globe.

The group released a statement on Saturday declaring the wheelchair-bound nun the world’s oldest person validated by early life records.

In a video shot by the organization last February, the smiling Canabarro can be seen cracking jokes, sharing miniature paintings she used to make of wild flowers and reciting the Hail Mary prayer.

The secret to longevity? Her Catholic faith, she says.

“I’m young, pretty and friendly — all very good, positive qualities that you have too,” the Teresian nun tells the visitors to her retirement home in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre.

Canabarro was born on June 8, 1908 to a large family in southern Brazil, according to LongeviQuest. Her great-grandfather was a famed Brazilian general who took up arms during the turbulent period following Brazil’s independence from Portugal in the 19th century.

She took up religious work still a teenager and spent two years in Montevideo, Uruguay, before moving to Rio de Janeiro and eventually closer to home in southern Brazil.

For her 110th birthday, she was honored by Pope Francis. She is the second oldest nun ever documented, after Lucile Randon, who was the world’s oldest person until her death in 2023 at the age of 118.

Local soccer club Inter — which was founded after Canabarro’s birth — celebrates every year the birthday of its oldest fan with a cake and balloons in the team’s red and white colors.

“White or black, rich or poor, whoever you are, Inter is the team of the people,” she says in one video posted on social media celebrating her 116th birthday with the club’s president.

Canabarro took the title of the oldest living person following the death of Japan’s Tomiko Itooka in December, according to LongeviQuest. She now ranks as the 20th oldest documented person to have ever lived, a list topped by Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122, according to LongeviQuest.