At the end of winter, the planets of the Solar System will be on one side of the Sun. Saturn, Mercury, Neptune, and Venus will align in a narrow sector of 20 to 30 degrees on February 28, according to Lyudmila Koshman, an astronomer at the Moscow Planetarium.
Their arrangement can be called a small parade of planets, or rather, an invisible small parade of planets, since only Venus will be visible out of the four planets, and it may be possible to "catch" Mercury under clear weather conditions.
Something similar will happen at the end of January: six planets will be on one side of the Sun. However, the angular distance between them will be so large that it cannot be called a "parade." Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars will be visible to the naked eye, while Neptune and Uranus can only be seen with a telescope.
Koshman clarified that the term "parade of planets" has no scientific basis and is used solely to draw attention to astronomy. According to the specialist, several planets can only be on the same line with the Earth and the Sun once every few million years. However, sometimes celestial bodies are located on the same line with a slight deviation of 20-30 degrees. At such moments, planets located close to each other can be seen from Earth.
The previousparade of planets took place on August 28, 2024. Before dawn, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Saturn, and the Moon could be observed in the sky. The next one after February is expected on August 29, 2025.
Small parades of planets occur approximately every 20 years. Large parades, when five or more planets gather in one narrow sector of the sky, occur much less frequently.
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