Seven planets share the sky at once this week, but the parade of planets ends soon
As February draws to a close, skywatchers have their final chance to see the 'planet parade' that has been lighting up the night sky.
While the celestial spectacle, in which all seven planets in our solar system apart from Earth can be seen at once, has been on display for most of the week, Friday is expected to offer the best chance for skywatchers worldwide. That's because Mercury, which did not appear above the horizon until late this month, will be at its highest point above the horizon.
After Friday, Mercury and Saturn will likely appear too faint and too low on the horizon for most people to see.
Including those two planets, it should be possible to spot five of the seven planets with the naked eye if conditions are right. Viewing Uranus and Neptune, however, will require a telescope.
Planetary parades occur when multiple planets appear at the same time, spread across the sky in a kind of arc. They're not uncommon, though it's rare for all seven planets to be visible at the same time. In August, four planets will be visible before sunrise, but it won't be until October 2028 that five will again be visible at once, according to NASA.
To see the planets in the sky this week, it's best to find a spot with minimal light pollution on a clear night.
Saturn will appear close to the horizon (it has become more difficult to see over the course of the month as it sinks lower in the sky). Mercury has gotten farther from the sun in recent weeks, making it easier to spot. It can be found low in the western sky after sunset, near Saturn.
Venus, too, is in the western part of the sky and usually the easiest of the planets to find, as it tends to be the brightest.
Jupiter can be seen at dusk, high overhead in the south, according to NASA. Mars, meanwhile, will be in the eastern sky and the last planet to set before sunrise.
Michael Shanahan, planetarium director at the Liberty Science Center in New Jersey, recommended looking for Mercury and Saturn soon after sunset, near where the sun went down — ideally with binoculars.
Then, once it gets a little darker, he said, 'you can still get a great view of Venus as this incredibly bright dot over in the western sky. High overhead, you can see Jupiter, which is like Venus, brighter than any star in the sky. And then, sort of more towards the east, the planet Mars is still pretty bright right now.'
Shanahan added that even beyond Friday, people will still be able to witness what he referred to as a 'ballet of the planets against the starry background.'
'Around the 10th of March, Venus is going to be too low to see. Right now, Venus is this blazing bright dot like an airplane,' he said.
Planetary parades occur because the planets orbit the sun on a relatively flat, disk-shaped plane. Each moves at its own pace along this metaphorical racetrack: Mercury completes an orbit in 88 days, Venus takes 225 days, and Saturn needs more than 29 years to circle the sun.
When multiple planets end up on the same side of the track, they appear to us to like cars at different points along a straightaway, Jackie Faherty, an astronomer and senior research scientist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, told NBC News earlier this month.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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