Astronomers predict that seven planets will be visible in the Earth's evening sky on Friday.
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune will be visible from the Earth's surface with the naked eye. However, experts say that for a detailed view of the so-called planetary parade, you will need a high-quality telescope.
A webcast hosted by the Virtual Telescope project in Italy will help amateur astronomers and those simply curious find their favorite planets in the sky. Astrophysicist Gianluca Masi will be broadcasting live at noon ET.
“This parade happens from time to time and we want to share this event with our friends around the world,” Mazi said.
This alignment occurs when the planets orbit the sun on a relatively flat, disk-shaped plane. While such alignments are not uncommon, what is rare is for all seven planets to line up at the same time, and this will not happen again until 2040.
All planets except Mercury will be visible for most of the week, according to NASA.
The Moon has already appeared among the planets in the sky and will appear again on Friday.
“So when you have multiple planets in the sky, they will all be roughly aligned,” said Ian Todd. “That's one way to tell a planet from a star. So these so-called 'planetary alignments' are really inevitable. But that doesn't make them any less amazing to see with your own eyes.”
Sourse: www.upi.com
