The planets are aligning. This Saturday we’ll have a rare chance to see several of our closest cosmic neighbors in a single sky. Six planets will assemble themselves for a spectacular “planetary parade” that you’ll be able to see all over the world—provided you have clear skies.
Mercury, Venus, Saturn and Jupiter will all be visible to the naked eye for between a half hour and an hour around twilight; they will appear in that order, stretching upward from the horizon shortly after sunset. To see them, astronomers advise going somewhere high-altitude and cloud-free because all the visible planets will be relatively low in the western sky. One of the lowest will be Mercury, the smallest planet and a rare sight from Earth. Only Mars will be skipping the planetary performance.
Those with a telescope will even be able to glimpse our two farthest celestial fellows, Neptune and Uranus. The two “ice giants” will be far dimmer but will also hit their marks on this global, starlit stage.
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Our solar system’s planets sail about the sun in more or less the same plane because they all formed from the same disk of swirling gas and dust that was left behind when our sun was born. Their respective orbits are different, but every few years, chance places them all on roughly the same side of the sun. In 2040 there will even be a night in which you will be able to view all seven planets in a single sky.
So, especially if you’re in the U.S. Northeast, nature is giving you a perfect way to recover from blizzard-racked weeks spent indoors. Bundle up, bring a hot beverage and march out into the evening to get a front-row seat for our planetary neighbors’ spectacular performance.