This week a full-fledged space spectacle will take place: five planets and the Moon will be aligned, and you can enjoy it with the naked eye. Are Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus, Mars and our natural satellite.
The arrangement can be observed just below the crescent Moon and with the setting of the Sun, according to Cameron Hummels, astrophysicist quoted by CNN.
People in the southern hemisphere They should face northwest. while those of the northern hemisphere Look southwest.
Hummels, a fellow at the California Institute of Technology, noted that to a large extent it will be visible to the naked eye, including in urban areas with heavy light pollution.
Clear, who owns a telescope can have a greater enjoyment of the event.
This is how the five planets and the Moon can be seen from Earth
The easiest planet to see is Venus, the “evening star”, since it is the brightest object in the night sky, apart from the Moon. Uranus will be nearby, and just below it will be Jupiter and Mercury.
Mars will be in the lead of the so-called “parade of planets”, in a straight line above the others, standing out with its reddish color.
The planets are aligned when they are located in the same constellation. Although it is not unusual to see two or three planets in the sky, as the Daily Mail points out, a lineup of five is less common. It happened in 2016, 2020 and 2022.
Describes the teacher Beth Biller, from the University of Edinburgh, quoted by the Daily Mail:
- “Venus and Jupiter they are very bright and easy to distinguish. You may have already seen them together in the last few weeks.”
- “Marte it’s a bit fainter, but it’s still easily seen with the naked eye.”
- “Mercurio It starts to get complicated: You have to be somewhere dark, with a clear view of the horizon, if you want to see Mercury.”
According to Anna Gammon-Ross, astronomer at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, “to detect the fifth planet at this time, Uranus, you will have to see Venus up close with a telescope.”
An authentic spectacle of the Solar System, which you can enjoy this week much better with enough planning, or without so much detail just by looking at the sky.
