Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Uranus, and Mars will be visible after sunset within a 50-degree sector in a rare astronomical phenomenon.
“Perhaps the hardest to see with your eye will be the planet Mercury, [which] will be the one closest to the horizon, and right beside it will be a brighter object, planet Jupiter,” Dr. Bill Cooke, who heads NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center and has a Ph.D. in astronomy, said.
“Of course, the capper will be the moon, which will be halfway lit up just above Mars. So you’ll get five planets and the moon,” he said, according to Good Morning America.
After sunset, Jupiter and Mercury will be visible near the horizon in the Pisces constellation. Venus will be the brightest and most visible planet.
According to experts, Uranus may be hard to locate, but it will be nearby Venus. Meanwhile, Mars will be higher in the sky in the constellation Gemini.
“Don’t forget to look to the sky [at] the end of the month for the planetary alignment, which will have at least five planets — plus the moon — all visible in almost an arc shape as seen from Earth,” former Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin tweeted earlier this month, CBS News reports.
Don’t forget to look to the sky the end of the month for the planetary alignment which will have at least five planets – plus the moon – all visible in almost an arc shape as seen from Earth. https://t.co/9OINapk8fe
— Dr. Buzz Aldrin (@TheRealBuzz) March 16, 2023
Each planet in our solar system shares the same orbital plane, so during a planetary alignment, the planets appear to “bunch” together and form a line “like a dome,” Cooke said.
Another planetary alignment is expected on April 11, and then in June, the five planets of Mercury, Uranus, Jupiter, Neptune and Saturn will also align to be visible.
Meanwhile, in September 2040, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn and Mars will align in another rare event.
“All of them will be visible within 10 degrees, and that’ll be pretty darn impressive,” Cooke said. “I’m always partial to Saturn because of the rings, right? I mean, who can resist?”
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/The Motion Cloud
Amanda Casanova is a writer living in Dallas, Texas. She has covered news for ChristianHeadlines.com since 2014. She has also contributed to The Houston Chronicle, U.S. News and World Report and IBelieve.com. She blogs at The Migraine Runner.
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