Planetary alignment

About Planetary alignment:

• It is a term used to describe the positioning of planets in the solar system such that they appear to be in a straight line or close to one when viewed from a specific vantage point, for us that’s Earth.
• This phenomenon is more an illusion of perspective rather than the planets being in a perfect line in space.
• Aligning planets: Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune will form a near-straight line.
• Which Planets will be visible?
  • While six planets align, not all of them will be visible to the naked eye, due to their vast distance from Earth.
  • Meanwhile, the Moon will also play a spoilsport as it distorts the visibility.
  • Mercury, and Jupiter will be tricky to see in the sky due to their proximity to the Sun in their orbit.
  • However, Mars and Saturn will be visible to the naked eye, though very dim. Meanwhile, keen observers will need telescopes or high-powered binoculars to spot the distant planets Uranus and Neptune.

Q1: What is a dwarf planet?

It is a celestial body orbiting a star that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity but has not cleared its neighboring region of planetesimals and is not a satellite.

Source: Parade of planets: Six planets to line up in the skies in rare cosmic alignment

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