Skygazers should get ready for a treat this week as they are all set to capture an exceptionally rare phenomenon. According to an official of Bhubaneswar's Pathani Samanta Planetarium, in a rare and unique astronomical event, the brightest planets - Venus and Jupiter, will be seen very close together on April 30. Venus will be 0.2 degrees south of Jupiter.
Meanwhile, before the sunrise of April 26 and April 27, four planets -- including Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, were visible within 30 degrees from the eastern horizon in a near-perfect straight line. One could also see Jupiter, Venus, Mars and Saturn in a line without the need for binoculars or telescopes. The official said the phenomenon lit up the sky for nearly an hour.
Commenting on the solar event, Subhendu Pattnaik, Deputy Director, Pathani Samanta Planetarium said such a phenomenon was captured after 1,000 years.
Popularly known as the 'planet parade', the occurrence denotes an event wherein planets of the solar system line up in a row in the same area of the sky.
Explaining the three most common types of 'planet parade', Pattnaik said when planets line up on one side of the Sun, it is termed 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, an alignment of four planets occurs once a year, while that of five planets occurs once 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 had 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. Three planets can be simultaneously observed in the same part of the sky several times a year.
"During the last week of April 2022, a rare and unique planet parade will take place when Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will line up in the eastern sky around one hour before sunrise. This will be a planet parade of the third kind as described above. The last such parade of these planets occurred in 947 AD around 1,000 years ago," Pattnaik said.
(With inputs from ANI)
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