(MENAFN– Al-Bayan)
All the planets of our solar system were visible in the night sky simultaneously the day before yesterday, which experts consider a rare astronomical event, according to the British newspaper “The Guardian”, which indicated that Venus, Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars can be seen, in order, with the naked eye, in half. The northern sphere, starting from the southwestern horizon towards the east, with the vision of Uranus between Mars and Jupiter, and Neptune between Saturn and Jupiter, with binoculars or a telescope.
According to the newspaper, all eight planets appeared at an interval of only 1.5 degrees. She indicated that the planets could be spotted low in the west, and the clearest view was expected about 30 minutes after sunset, and the disappearance of Venus after about 30 minutes every day until the end of the year.
And about this phenomenon, Gianluca Massi, an astronomer in the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy, told the American magazine “Newsweek”: “On such nights, we can see all the planets of our solar system at a glance shortly after sunset, and this happens from time to time, which is Always an amazing sight.
Mercury is the most difficult planet to see without magnification, according to experts, because it is located in a bright part of the sky, yet it can be spotted near the brighter Venus, while the rest of the planets line up towards the east, and Jupiter appears brighter than all the stars, and higher in the southern sky.
While Mars, which was visible all night after rising in the east just before sunset on Wednesday, appears in red, Saturn, the second largest planet, appears golden in the southwest after dark every day until 2023.
The last time all the planets were seen in the sky at once was in June, and all five planets visible to the naked eye were lined up in the sky in the same sequential order in which they actually orbit the sun – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn – in an alignment that hasn’t happened in 18 years.
This is expected to reach the “quadruple meteor shower” peak around January 3, which produces blue meteors traveling at a speed of 40 kilometers per second, like occasional bright fireballs.
