This Week’s Uncommon Convergence of Seven Planets in the Sky
A special event is coming up that will light up the night sky. On the evening of February 28, 2025, all seven planets of our Solar System—Saturn, Mercury, Neptune, Venus, Uranus, Jupiter, and Mars—will be visible in the sky at the same time. This spectacular sight is called a great planetary alignment, and it’s rare for all these planets to appear together like this.
It’s pretty common for some planets to be on the same side of the Sun at times, but seeing most or all of them aligned in a row is much less frequent. When three to eight planets are lined up, that’s considered an alignment. An arrangement of five or six planets is called a large alignment, while finding seven planets together is extremely unusual.
These alignments may not look exactly like the neat lines you see in textbooks about our Solar System. In reality, planets don’t always align perfectly. However, they can appear to form a line in the sky. This is due to the way the planets orbit the Sun on a flat path known as the ecliptic. Although some planets have orbits that are slightly tilted, they generally stay around this same level, much like grooves on a vinyl record.
The reason the planets line up in this way has to do with how stars form. A star, often called a baby star during its early life, forms in a cloud of gas and dust. As the star begins to spin, this surrounding cloud flattens into a disk. Planets then develop from leftover material in this disk. If no other forces interfere, these planets will continue orbiting along this flat plane.
At certain times, planets can end up on the same side of the Sun. This positioning allows us to see them all in the sky together, which is what will happen on February 28.
If you want to catch this amazing view, how well you can see the planets depends on your location. Different spots on Earth will have different visibility conditions. To plan for this celestial event, you can use online tools that show when each planet rises and sets, and where to find them in the sky.
One useful tool is offered by Time and Date, which lets you enter the date of the event. It provides information about the times planets will appear, where in the sky they will be, and how easy they will be to see. Another great option is Stellarium, a web tool that illustrates the positions of all the planets on the specified date.
For those who want to stargaze on the go, the Sky Tonight app is a handy option. It uses your phone’s location to show you the current positions of celestial objects in the sky. There are also many other stargazing apps available that can help enhance your viewing experience.
To fully appreciate the beauty of the planets, binoculars or a telescope will be really helpful. So, if you haven’t got one yet, it’s a good idea to get started on your preparations now. Don’t forget to hope for clear skies, so you can enjoy this extraordinary opportunity to see all seven planets aligned in the night sky!
