You may have heard of a ‘parade of planetswhich would grace the early morning sky Monday morning with a rare celestial event. But if you missed it, don’t worry — experts say you’ve been misled, and there will be another time soon when you can get a better look at the alignment of planets .
The June 3 “parade of planets” speech appeared to stem from a social media post from the space news site “Latest in Space.” In a May 21 post, Latest in Space said that “in a rare event, six planets will align in a straight line on Monday (June 3) just before sunrise in the Northern Hemisphere,” claiming that Mercury, Jupiter, Uranus, Mars , Neptune and Saturn “will all be visible.”
Many quickly thought it meant that all the planets would be visible to the naked eye. But according to the experts, such a “spectacular celestial event” would not take place this morning.
According to space news site Space.com, planets simply cannot be seen as disks with the naked eye; even the brightest will twinkle like stars. The fixed positioning of the planets this morning also proved problematic for the event, as Mercury and Jupiter “will be very close to the Sun’s position in the sky and thus likely to be masked by the brilliant glow of dawn,” according to the website. said. The two planets could be visible with binoculars, but you need a flat horizon and no obstacles to see them, the site said.
Uranus is visible to the naked eye, but only in a dark and unpolluted sky, but since it wouldn’t rise until about an hour before sunrise this morning, the sky was already too clear to actually see it.
“If you step outside around 4:30 or 4 a.m. Monday morning, don’t expect to be impressed by the sight of a parade of planets,” Space.com said. “What you will likely see is a crescent moon and a bright orange ‘star’ shining to the right (Mars) and further to the right another relatively bright ‘star’ will glow with a yellowish-white hue (Saturn).”
The website also noted that while seeing such a parade would be rare, the alignment of planets is not a rare event as they are all in an orbital plane.
NASA also confirmed that Monday morning’s alignment was not all it was cracked up to be.
“In reality, only two of the six planets that are supposedly visible (Saturn and Mars) will actually be visible,” NASA said. “In early June, Jupiter and Mercury will be at or below the horizon at dawn and not visible; Uranus and Neptune will be far too faint to see without a telescope, especially as the morning sky brightens.”
The closest thing to a “parade of planets” will happen on June 29, NASA said, when Saturn, the moon, Mars and Jupiter will align in the morning.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Space.com also noted that another planetary setup is ready for next winter. According to the site, the moon, Saturn, Venus and Jupiter will be radiant in the early evening sky on January 31, 2025 and/or February 1. Mars will also be visible and “more than six times brighter than it appears to us right now.”
“Compared to all that, the much-discussed ‘Parade of Planets’ on June 3 can best be described with a single word: disappointing,” the site said.
