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A very rare sight is about to grace the Earth's night sky. On the evening of February 28, 2025, seven planets of the Solar System will appear simultaneously in the night sky: Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Venus, Saturn and Mercury. They line up in a neat row. But that's not all: in 10 days, on January 21, 2025, six of the seven other planets will simultaneously appear in the sky in a large row. It will be Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Venus and Saturn.
The simultaneous appearance of several planets in the sky is not uncommon, but it is rarer when most or even all of the planets line up in a row. Any number of planets from three to eight constitutes an alignment.
The appearance of five or six planets is known as a grand alignment, with alignments of five planets being much more common than alignments of six. Sometimes the planets appear on the same side of the Sun, so they can be observed in the sky at the same time. It is this event that will decorate the sky on the evening of January 21 and February 28.
