Islam Khaled wrote in “Al-Balad News”:
The sky of Egypt will soon witness a new astronomical phenomenon, which is the alignment of five planets with dawn on Friday, the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, in a scene awaited by all amateur astronomers and those interested in this field of monitoring and photography if they have the opportunity.
Ashraf Tadros, Professor of Astronomy at the National Institute for Astronomical Research and former head of the Astronomy Department, said that we are witnessing a alignment of five planets with dawn on Friday, June 24, as the five visible planets will all line up at the same time in succession with the presence of the moon in a view seen with the naked eye in an astronomical scene. Unique and wonderful.
Dr. Tadros explained that the five planets that will line up are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, and that they do not need a telescope to see them, and that they will be seen with the naked eye, and that the alignment will happen at exactly four o’clock in the morning.
He pointed out that the moon had been associated with Jupiter on Tuesday, June 21, about half an hour after midnight, and then the planets of Jupiter and Mars mediated on June 22 after one in the morning, then the moon was paired with Mars on June 23 at approximately one-third in the morning.
The professor of astronomy noted that in order to be able to observe any astronomical phenomenon, such as the conjunctions of the moon with the stars and planets, or the birth of the crescents of the Arab months, it requires a clear atmosphere and the sky is free of clouds, dust and water vapor.
He added that the astronomical phenomenon does not have any damage to human health or daily activity on Earth.
Mercury
Mercury is the smallest planet of the eight planets in the solar system, with a diameter of only about 4,880 km, and it is the closest planet to the sun, as it completes its orbit around it in only 87,969 days, and its surface temperature is very high.
And the planet Mercury of the Romans, and the fastest among them, as it was observed 5000 years ago in the Sumerian times. The Greeks believed that it was two stars. They called it Apollo when it appeared in the morning before sunrise, and Hermes in the evening after sunset.
The ancient Arabs called the planet Mercury by this name due to its rapid movement and successive flow, as it moves and revolves quickly around the sun due to its close proximity to it (in physical terms, the closer the planet is to the sun, the faster its rotation around it increases).
Venus is the planet of love and beauty
Venus is the most beautiful and closest planet in the solar system to Earth, as the Greeks called it Aphrodite and took from it a goddess of love and beauty. .
The Romans called it “Venus”, which is the name by which it has become known to this day, and Venus because of its brightness may be seen during the day after sunrise or before sunset.
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet in terms of distance from the sun, and the distance between them is approximately 228 million km.
Mars is associated with war. 3,000 years ago, the Babylonians in Iraq called it “Nirgal” after the god of plague and death in their religion, while the ancient Egyptians called it red, while the Chinese called it the star of fire.
The most famous name for Mars that we know it by now is “Mars” (Latin: Mars), which is a quotation for the name of the god of war in Roman mythology, and was named to the ancient Greeks “Ares”, which is also their god of war.
Mars appears red, and the reason for this is the presence of large amounts of rust or iron oxide in its rocks and soil, and Mars is now often known as the Red Planet.
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the solar system from the sun; The average distance between it and the sun is 5.2 astronomical units, which is equivalent to 778,340,821 km, and this distance is five times the distance between the sun and Earth, and it is the largest planet ever, its size is greater than the size of all the planets combined, as its diameter is at an area Its equator is 143 thousand kilometers.
It should be noted that Jupiter revolves around the sun in a very large period of time; One revolution of Jupiter around the sun takes 12 Earth years to complete.
Jupiter is one of the brightest celestial bodies in space, preceded by the Earth’s moon, Venus, and sometimes Mars, and some consider it the second brightest planet after Venus. From its current size, eighty times it would have been a star, not a planet.
Saturn Lord of the Rings
Saturn is considered the jewel of the solar system, the Lord of the Rings and the King of the Rings because of its remarkable ring system that can only be seen through telescopes, the main ring covering approximately the distance between Earth and the Moon, which is one kilometer.
Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun and the second largest planet in our solar system. It is a huge ball consisting mostly of hydrogen and helium and contains rings of pieces of ice and rocks covered with dust revolving around it extending up to 282,000 km from the planet.
Saturn has the second shortest day in the solar system as it takes one day on Saturn only 10.7 hours and makes a complete revolution around the sun in about 29.4 Earth years.
Saturn has 82 moons, 53 confirmed and named, and another 29 are awaiting confirmation of discovery and official naming.