Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn to form straight line, to be visible from Earth
After 1,000 years, a rare and unique astronomical event will take place during the last week of April when four planets including Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will align in a straight line in the eastern sky for around one hour before the sunrise, said Subhendu Pattnaik, Deputy Director, Pathani Samanta Planetarium, Bhubaneswar
Speaking to ANI, Subhendu Pattnaik said, "During the last week of April 2022, a rare and unique planet alignment will occur, which is popularly known as 'planet parade'' Although there is no scientific definition for 'planet parade', it is being widely used in astronomy to denote an event that takes place when planets of the solar system line up in a row in the same area of the sky."
Pattnaik further explained the three most common types of 'planet parade'. He said when planets line up on one side of the Sun as seen up above the plane of our solar system is termed as the first kind of planet parade. The alignment of three planets on one side of the Sun is very common and can be seen for many days in a year.
Similarly, the alignment of four planets occurs once a year while that of five planets occurs once in every nineteen years. The alignment of all eight planets occurs once in about 170 years.
"Secondly, when some planets appear in a small sector of the sky at the same time regardless of their visibility conditions, from Earth's point of view we term the event also as a planet parade. A planet parade of this type last happened on April 18, 2002 and July 2020 when all planets of the Solar system that are visible to the naked eye lined up in a row in the evening sky," said Pattnaik.
He said the third type of planet parade is on rare occasions where there are favourable conditions for observation of all or some of the planets. These events are also referred to as planet parades. Three planets can be simultaneously observed in the same part of the sky several times a year.
