On Tuesday night, the skies will be lit up with a rare celestial event as five planets and the Moon align in a rare cosmic dance. Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and Uranus will all be visible in the sky, though not in a straight line. This event follows the recent conjunction of Jupiter and Venus, which was observed by stargazers all over the world.
The celestial show will begin with Jupiter appearing in the sky just after sunset, followed by Venus, Uranus, the Moon, and Mars rising upwards. According to astronomers, the planets will stretch from the horizon line to around halfway up the night sky.
While Jupiter, Venus, and Mars will be visible to the naked eye due to their higher brightness, stargazers will require a telescope to pinpoint Uranus in the evening sky. Uranus is located approximately 3.05 billion kilometers away from Earth, making it the farthest planet from the Sun in our solar system.
Despite the planets appearing to be lined up in the sky, this event does not mean they are actually closer to each other. This kind of alignment occurs when the planets' orbits line up on one side of the Sun from Earth's perspective.
The Moon will be the brightest object in the sky, followed by Venus, while Mars and Jupiter will appear dimmer given their positions in their current orbits and distance from Earth. Although the planets have already begun appearing in the sky, the best viewing will occur just after sunset on Tuesday night.
While this is a rare event, it is not an unusual occurrence. These types of planetary alignments happen regularly, but they are not always visible from Earth. The next time this particular alignment will be visible from Earth will be in 2040.
This event presents a fantastic opportunity for stargazers and astronomers to view our solar system in a unique way. With clear skies and minimal light pollution, the alignment will be visible from all over the world, including India. While the planets will be most visible on Tuesday night, they will continue to be visible in the sky until the end of the month before disappearing into the vastness of the cosmos as Earth moves in its own orbit.