Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news about fascinating discoveries, scientific breakthroughs and more.
A “planetary parade” during which six planets will appear aligned in the sky near dawn is on the way, but only three planets will be visible to the naked eye – and the phenomenon is more common than it seems.
“You’ll be able to see Mars, Saturn and Jupiter,” said Dr. James O’Donoghue, a planetary astronomer and researcher at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. “If you have binoculars and know where to look, you can probably see Uranus, but it doesn’t make much sense to wait until almost sunrise – you might as well do it in the early evening. The end result is that you can only see about half of the planets in this planetary formation with the naked eye.”
The best day to see the show in Europe and North America will be Sunday, about half an hour before sunrise, according to O’Donoghue. Aiming for that time period would also give him a chance to spot Mercury, although it might not be easy even with binoculars, he said.
“The problem is that the sun will light up the sky in that area,” O’Donoghue added. “It’s just before sunrise, but it will still be very, very bright in the sky, and you probably won’t want to point your binoculars too close to the sun either.”
If you have one, a telescope would help, especially if you want to locate Uranus and Neptune. “But to actually be able to see this, you need to zoom in on one target so much that you can’t see the others, so you’d be getting rid of your entire field of view,” he said.
The order in which the planets will line up on Sunday is Jupiter, Mercury, Uranus, Mars, Neptune and Saturn, and they will be accompanied by a crescent moon. By the end of the week, on Thursday, the Moon will be out of the way — reducing light pollution, O’Donoghue noted — and Mercury will have switched positions with Jupiter.
The alignment will be visible to skywatchers everywhere, but the ideal date to see the planets with the closest alignment may be different. depending on where you are in the world.
Planetary alignments: what to know
It is important to note that this alignment is not happening in space, but only in the sky as seen from our planet.
“From the point of view of someone on Earth looking up at the sky, it will look like there is more or less a straight line of planets, what you might call a planetary alignment or planetary parade,” said Dr. Pattle, a professor at department of physics and astronomy at University College London.
“But physically, there’s no real alignment going on. It turns out that most of the planets are on more or less the same side of the Sun right now. If the planets actually lined up with each other in space, it would be called syzygy and it is a much, much rarer event,” he added.
In fact, this type of planetary alignment is not rare at all. “There will be several more in the coming years because the outer planets move across the sky more slowly the further they are from us, creating many opportunities for these types of alignments to happen,” Pattle said. “In fact, something probably better will happen next February when we will have all the planets in the sky at the same time, including Venus, which is missing from this one.”
Pattle recommends Monday, about an hour before sunrise, as the best opportunity to see the spectacle from most of the world, and she is most optimistic about Mercury’s entry into the group of planets visible without instruments.
“Mercury is usually visible to the naked eye if you’re somewhere with little light pollution, but it’s better with binoculars because (the planet) isn’t particularly bright and is only visible just before dawn, so it’s usually on a fairly bright background. , ” she said.
An app like Stellarium Mobile or Night Sky can be useful if you’re not sure where to look, and ideally you’ll need to be somewhere with low light pollution and a low horizon, because Jupiter, Mercury, and Uranus won’t. be far above that, said Pattle.
You should also try to be somewhere with a good view to the east, as this will be roughly in the direction of sunrise. “Jupiter will be the easiest to detect because it will be the brightest thing in the sky after the moon,” Pattle said. “The other planets are not easy to distinguish, but they don’t shine the same way as stars, so this is one way to identify them.”
For more news and newsletters from CNN, create an account at CNN.com
