Planetary parades are not particularly significant to scientists but they can create a visual spectacle.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images
In a small window of time around February 28, people on the earth were in for a visual treat as seven planets, plus the moon, lined up in the night sky. These events are called planetary parades because the planets seem to line up, one behind the other, in the night sky in the order of their distance from the sun.
Depending on the number of planets involved, planetary parades can be common or rare. For example, a parade of three or four planets occurs once every few years whereas a parade of seven or eight planets is very rare. The parade around February 28 was of the latter variety, involving seven planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
The closer planets were visible to the naked eye but the farther ones, especially Uranus and Neptune, required telescopes to see.
The next such line-up is only expected in 2040, involving six planets.
Planetary parades are not particularly significant to scientists. The reason why they happen is simple: the planets of the solar system all orbit the sun in roughly the same plane, called the ecliptic plane. So as they move in their orbits, every once in a while some of them will be visible together from the earth. This wouldn’t have been possible if the planets were moving around in different orbits.
Published – March 02, 2025 01:23 pm IST
