A unique celestial event
is set for Monday morning (03/06/2024), featuring a planetary parade instead of floats and
marching bands. Six planets from our solar system will line up in the sky just
before sunrise.
This planetary alignment
will include Jupiter, Mercury, Uranus, Mars, Neptune, and Saturn appearing in a
straight line near the horizon. According to Time magazine, this is actually an
optical illusion, as the planets are vastly separated in space.
"They are scattered
all across the sky at different depths, positions, and distances, and just
happen to be visible at once in a 73° area," Time explains. "The
phenomenon is similar to positioning six people randomly in a field and aligning
yourself so that you can capture all of them in one camera shot."
This kind of planetary
alignment is in fact not rare at all. “There’s going to be several more in the
next couple of years, because the outer planets move in the sky more slowly, as
they’re further away from us, creating lots of chances for these kinds of
alignments to happen,” Pattle said. “Actually, a probably better one is going
to happen next February, when we’ll have all of the planets in the sky at the
same time, including Venus which is missing from this one.”
Pattle recommends Monday,
about an hour before sunrise, as the best chance to see the show in most parts
of the world, and she is more optimistic about Mercury joining the group of
planets visible without instruments.
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