People can catch a five-planet alignment next week as Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Uranus and Mars appear across the night sky.
According to Starwalk, the planets will align before the start of the lunar cycle on March 28.
A major planetary alignment, defined as an alignment of five or six planets, will be visible after sunset within a small 50-degree sector of the sky, Starwalk said. Jupiter and Mercury will be near the horizon, Venus and Uranus will appear above, and Mars will shine near the moon, according to Starwalk. March 28 will be the best day for observation, Starwalk said, but the alignment will be visible on earlier and later days.
Gary Swangin, an astronomer and manager of the Panther Academy Planetarium in Paterson, New Jersey, told the New Jersey Herald that Venus, Mars and Jupiter would be easier to see with bare bricks than Mercury and Uranus, which would likely require binoculars. Or a telescope to catch.
Still days away, former Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin tweeted in anticipation of the event.
“Be sure to look at the sky (at) the end of the month for planetary alignments that will have at least five planets — plus the Moon — all visible from Earth in roughly the shape of an arc,” he wrote.
There will be other opportunities to catch a planetary alignment this year on April 11 and later in the summer, including August 24. Another five-planet alignment of Mercury, Uranus, Jupiter, Neptune and Saturn will also be seen on June 17.
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn last June That is lined up in rare order — in their natural position from the Sun — for the first time since December 2004.
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Christopher Brito
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