Science & Technology
Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter will all be visible from Earth when they appear in a diagonal row before dawn on Wednesday, Jan. 20.
It's the first time the five bright planets, so-called as they can usually be seen easily with the naked eye, have aligned in such a way for more than 10 years, reports EarthSky.org.
The phenomenon will continue every early morning until Feb. 20.
"Essentially a quirk of the universe," Dr Alan Duffy, research fellow at Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia, told Australian Geographic about the formation. And with the five planets on different yearly cycles, he added their alignment was "something well worth seeing."
Jupiter will rise first, followed by the red-tinted Mars, golden-looking Saturn, brightest planet Venus and lastly Mercury. Exact timings will vary each day and depend on where you are located.
The Washington Post reports that, if you look south from D.C. before dawn on Sunday, Jan. 24, then Mercury will be closest to the eastern horizon, while Jupiter will loiter in the west-southwest.
But don't panic, there are a host of stargazing apps to help you figure out exactly where to look and which planet is which. Just hope it's not cloudy.
The waning moon will also sweep past the planets from Jan. 27 to Feb. 6, according to the Coachella Valley Independent.
Astronomers last got the chance to see the planets in a similar line-up between Dec. 15, 2004 and Jan. 15, 2005.
The next time the planets align is predicted to be in the evening sky from Aug. 13 to 19, according to EarthSky.org, but Mercury and Venus will sit low and not be easily seen from the northern hemisphere.
Reader Comments
What does it all mean????
A 'quirk' of the universe?
Man needs a slap round the head.
And Sott, when are you going to put back at the top of the page those things that all literate people can understand, you know, Words, instead of the pretty pictures that some illiterate design team thought would do a better job in informing your readers how to navigate the site. What next? Is Laura going to give us an article in cartoon format?
Because the idea that adding the extra step of having to find and check out the hidden text associated with each pictogram is some sort of cutting edge design feature and represents progress in the presentation of information is either naive, deluded or, quite frankly, just stupid.
I am curious to see how this plays out from the EU theory standpoint. Its going to be about a month of 5 planets lining up. How will it affect charge/discharge in the planetary system. Curious to see how volcanic/earthquake events take place along with weird weather patterns playing out. Are things gonna ramp up during this, or will it be a channeling of energy for a month that then gets unleashed as the planets fall out of alignment? It has already been a chaotic start to the year.
Yep. Another round of astrological bullshit. Nothing happened. If it did it would have been a random event with nothing to do with any planets in alignment.






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