EKU professor explains ‘parade of planets’

Originally published by WEKU.

What astronomers call a “parade of planets” will be visible in the early evening sky all month. Mark Pitts is an assistant professor of physics at Eastern Kentucky University. He said all the planets in our solar system orbit the sun at different rates and sometimes, from our nighttime perspective, they seem to be arranged in a rough line.

“So at a moment where you can kind of sweep your eyes across the sky and see every visible one of the planets. Of course there are also Uranus and Neptune, but you can’t see those with your naked eye.”

According to space-dot-com, a similar alignment’s not expected until October of 2028. Pitts said in one sense, the lineup of planets is always there.

“We live in a solar system that is flat. It’s a roughly flat disk. So that means that, from our point of view, looking at the sky, the planets are always on a rough line. The difference is, are they close enough together that you could see them all at the same time?”

Pitts said Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars will be visible with the naked eye, with Mercury a bit harder to see unaided because it’s so close to the sun.

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Originally published by WEKU.

Republished with permission.

https://www.weku.org/lexington-richmond/2025-02-03/eku-professor-explains-parade-of-planets