The Huffington Post
Starting 18 April, Saturn, Mars, and Mercury will appear to “line up” from the perspective of viewers on Earth and will be visible to the naked eye in especially clear-skied areas. And a fourth, Neptune, will also be a part of the so-called “planet parade”, though you’ll need a telescope to see that. Here’s why it happens, as well as where, when, and how to catch the event: What is a “planet parade”? All planets in our solar system orbit the sun. But they take different amounts of time to complete their journey. While Earth takes around 365 days to completely spin around the sun, for Neptune, that’s closer to 165 years. If we all moved at the same pace, we’d always remain the same distance from one another, but these variants make planets a bit like runners on a race track; really speedy ones will appear beside slower ones as they lap them, for instance. That means that sometimes, planets appear to “catch up” to one another in their orbits. Of course, in actual space, they’re still very far apart. But from Earth’s perspective, they will appear in a line (parade). In the case of Saturn, Mars, and Mercury, they’ll look like a “planet pyramid,” or triangle, from April 16-19, too. When can I catch the planetary parade? From April 16-19, you can see the “pyramid” of Saturn, Mars, and Mercury from the eastern horizon. Neptune will be there, but will be out of sight to the naked eye and even with a telescope, won’t be as “close”-looking to these planets as they are to one another. Starting on April 20, Saturn, Mars, and Mercury will line up, forming a diagonal line (again, Neptune will be there, but harder to see). From April 21-23, National Geographic added , “the planets will transition back into a perfect triangle, where they’ll continue to drift apart as the month wears on.” The best time to see the display is generally about half an hour before local sunrise in the northern hemisphere. That’ll be about 5:24am in the UK. Where can I see the planetary parade? While the view of the planets won’t be as high in our sky or as easy to see in the northern hemisphere as it is to our friends in the south, they will still be visible. They’ll appear to hug the horizon. Mars and Mercury will be the most easily visible. Anywhere you have a clear, flat view towards the east horizon will do. Related... A 'Potentially Habitable' New Planet Has Been Found Researchers Find New Planet Larger Than Jupiter Through Rare Einstein-Predicted Method 'Strongest' Sign Yet: Scientists Find Evidence Distant Planet May Be 'Teeming' With Life
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