JAKARTA - At the end of this month, people on Earth will be treated to an amazing celestial phenomenon, where the planets Saturn, Mars, Venus and Jupiter will be aligned in the sky before dawn.
Astronomers say that starting April 17, the four planets will appear diagonally with Jupiter closest to the horizon and Saturn at its highest.
In the northern hemisphere, this phenomenon will be most visible in the southeast on April 20, right next to sunrise in the east, although Jupiter may not be visible in sunlight until the last week of the month.
Distinguishing the planets with the naked eye is relatively easy to do. Astronomy education officer at the Royal Museums Greenwich, Jake Foster explained, Venus will be the brightest of the four planets, emitting a bright white light.
Jupiter will be the second brightest, also shining white. Saturn will obviously be dimmer than the other three, due to its greater distance, further from the Sun.
"Mars will have the most distinctive difference from the others because of its coloration, appearing as a bright orange point of light to the naked eye," Foster said.
According to NASA, the two brightest planets in the sky, Venus and Jupiter, are also set for their own ultra-close conjunction on April 30. This will be similar to the encounter of Mars and Saturn that occurred earlier this month April 4, where they appeared a few fingers apart.
Launching the Daily Mail, Thursday, April 14, Foster said that the alignment of the planets will be visible until early May, "Four planets will be visible in the morning before sunrise, which is before 6 a.m. BST on April 20. Sunrise will creep over early as the day goes on, so it's best to see this alignment sooner rather than later," said Foster.
"The tricky part is capturing the planets in the relatively short time between when they rise above the horizon and when the Sun follows them. This allows us a window of time between 5 and 6 am BST most mornings from April 20 onwards to see the planets in a neat line in the sky," he continued.
Even though they appear close when viewed from Earth, the planets are of course still millions of miles apart during the alignment. They only appear to move closer, or further away, in the sky as the view of them in the Solar System changes from month to month.
People don't need telescopes to see these planets, they just need a place where there is a clear cloud-free sky. For the record, the last time Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and Venus lined up like this was in 2020, and previously in 2016 and 2005.
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