Rare Astronomical Event After 1,000 Years — Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn To Form Straight Line This Week

The four planets will align in a straight line in the eastern sky for around one hour before sunrise. The last time such an event had occurred was 947 AD.

New Delhi: Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will form a straight line during the last week of April. This is a rare astronomical event taking place after 1,000 years.

The four planets will align in a straight line in the eastern sky for around one hour before sunrise, Subhendu Pattnaik, Deputy Director of the Pathani Samanta Planetarium Bhubaneswar said, news agency ANI reported. The last time such an event had occurred was 947 AD.

Pattnaik said that the event is popularly known as 'planet parade', and though there is no scientific definition for the term, it is widely used in astronomy to denote an event that takes place when the Solar System's planets line up in a row in the same area of the sky, according to an ANI report.

Three Types Of Planet Parade

Explaining the three most common types of 'planet parade', Pattnaik said that when planets line up on one side of the Sun, the phenomenon is termed as the first kind of planet parade. He added that this occurrence is very common and can be seen on many days in a year.

The alignment of four planets occurs once every year, while the alignments of five and eight planets occur once every 19 years. 

The alignment of all eight planets of the solar system is rare, and occurs once in about 170 years.

Pattnaik further said that the phenomenon of certain planets appearing in a small sector of the sky at the same time from Earth's point of view, regardless of their visibility conditions, is also known as a planet parade. 

On April 18, 2002, and July 2020, all the planets of the Solar System had lined up in a row in the evening sky, and were visible to the naked eye, Pattnaik said.

The third type of planet parade takes place on rare occasions, when the conditions are favourable to observe all or some of the planets. There are many instances in a year when there planets can be observed simultaneously.

Pattnaik said the rare astronomical event which will occur during the last week of April 2022 is the third type of planet parade that takes place on rare occasions. 

Pattnaik further said that Venus and Jupiter,which are the brightest planets, can be seen very close to each other on April 30. Venus will be 0.2 degrees south of Jupiter.