You might want to keep your eyes on the skies through next month: Six planets will align in January and February.
Mars will be making its closest approach to Earth in two years, and thus, the mighty red planet, named for the god of war himself, will appear brighter, bigger, and bolder in the night sky. This Martian exclamation point will further amplify the experience of the alignment.
Sky watchers are in for a treat this month as the stars align to give amateurs a shot to see six planets at once.
Six of our cosmic neighbors are expected to line up across the night sky tonight, in what has been dubbed a "planetary parade". Throughout much of January and February, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune will be visible splayed out in a long arc across the heavens, with Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn being visible to the naked eye.
Amazing views of Jupiter over the years via the Hubble Space Telescope. The moons of Io, Ganymede and hazy Uranus can be observed. Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, A. Simon (NASA-GSFC), M. H. Wong (UC Berkeley),
Look up! Six planets grace the sky this month in what’s known as a "planetary parade," and most will be able to be seen with the naked eye.
While the planets are technically always "aligned" along the same plane in our sky, seeing so many at once is a special opportunity
The enormous visitor to our solar system may have been about 8 times the mass of Jupiter, and come nearly as close to the sun as the orbit of Mars.
Planetary alignments aren't rare, but they can be when they involve six of the eight planets in our solar system.
For much of January and February, you have the chance to see six planets in our solar system after dark, although two — Uranus and Neptune — will be hard to see without a telescope or high-powered binoculars.
Skywatchers can spot Venus, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars in the night sky with the naked eye, but two other planets might need a telescope to be seen.
A planet-sized visitor possibly visited the solar system billions of years ago and permanently changed the cosmic neighbourhood by warping the orbital path of four outer planets of the system, a