Rare astronomical event: Seven planets aligned for skywatchers on Friday
Skywatchers are in for a treat on Friday night as all seven planets in our solar system will be visible, with some assistance.
According to NASA, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn will be visible to the naked eye, while Neptune and Uranus will require a telescope to view, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
This event is known as an alignment.
The planets are always actually lined up, but we just can't see them all at once. The planets are always in a line called an ecliptic – the plane where they orbit the Sun. As the planets race around the Sun at different speeds, sometimes they line up on the same side of the Sun, appearing closely together in the night sky.
The best time to see the planets will be shortly after sunset on Friday.
Planetary parades aren't necessarily rare on their own, but the addition of Mercury and Venus makes the lineups more exciting, as they orbit closer to the Sun than Earth and can be hard to see, NASA said.
Combinations of our seven neighboring planets have been visible throughout January and February as well.
In August 2025, another alignment will happen when four planets will be visible at once before the Sun rises.
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