The planets of the solar system line up in the Wednesday night sky, and they can be seen from Earth, in what is known as the “Planetary Show”.
This event, which also appeared on Tuesday night, made Mercury, Friday, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn more visible to naked-eye skywatchers. Using binoculars or binoculars Uranus and Neptune can be seen.
The planetary parade is not a very rare event – it takes place at least every two years. In fact, the eight planets aligned last week. Jun.
To see the action, it is recommended to look south after sunset. From east to west, the planets appeared in this order: Mars, Uranus, Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn, Mercury, Venus.
“People should look south 30 to 45 minutes after sunset, when they are closest to the horizon to catch Mercury and Venus,” says Fahey Piromian, a professor of astronomy and physics at USC. Jupiter, Saturn and Mars can be seen from the southeast to the east after dark.
Peromian told CBS News that the planets can appear together in the same part of the sky as they orbit the sun.
“Mercury completes its orbit in 88 days and Venus in 225 days. The outer planets move very slowly: Jupiter takes 12 years to go around the sun, while Saturn takes 29.” Regarding Jupiter and Saturn, unless they are on opposite sides of the sun from our point of view, the The rest of the planets will eventually align.”
It takes Neptune and Uranus 165 years and 84 years, respectively, to orbit the Sun at the same time that they are visible, which is a huge feat.
Both planets “spend a lot of time on opposite sides of the sun from our point of view,” Beromian said.
As of Wednesday night, he said, Uranus and Neptune were relatively close to each other, but since Uranus orbits the sun twice as fast as Neptune, the planets will be farther away.
As a result, Beromian added, “both planets will not be visible in the night sky at the same time for decades.”
