The Cosmic Chronicle #4
This week, I'm debunking clickbait about a planetary alignment and spotlighting visible planets!
Hi ,
Hope you’re having a great week! January is half-over. It’s difficult to believe how fast time goes.
This week’s newsletter is all about fighting against misinformation. Recently, all the social media are flooded with this ‘news’ about a planetary alignment on 25th January. Well, those are clickbaits!
Let’s unwrap this one-by-one.
First of all, no. All the planets will not be visible. Mercury will still be very close to the sun and be barely visible a few minutes before sunrise.
The other six planets: Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Uranus and Neptune, however, will be present in the night sky. But here’s the kicker: they are already visible (and has been for a while!)
If you have read the first few editions of the newsletter, you’ll remember that I have talked about observing Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars. That’s right. They have been in the night sky for quite a while.
You might ask, “What about Uranus and Neptune?” Those are so far away that you can’t observe them without very powerful telescope and very dark sky sites. You’ll not see them with your naked eyes.
The next question is the “alignment.” Here’s the fun part: The planets are always aligned (almost). The planets orbit the sun in more or less the same plane. So if you look at the ecliptic (the path of the sun) in the sky, the planets will always be aligned with it. Now, the orbits of the planets are not exactly on the same plane, so they’ll not all be exactly on the ecliptic, but you’ll find them within a few degrees of the ecliptic. Here’s the alignment on 25th January. The ecliptic is the red line.
If this excites you, then remember that this is how planets are roughly aligned all the time.
Many social media posts claim that the planets will all line up in the orbit, one after another.
This is also a bad representation of the situation, particularly because the planets can never line up in a straight line in the 3d space because their orbits are tilted in different angles. The closest we can get is all planets lining up closely on the same side of the sun, however that is so rare (about once every 396 billion years) that neither we, nor the sun, will exist by the time that happens.
So, how rare are these “planet parades,” where you can see multiple planets at the same time (or within a few hours of each other?) Not that rare! The last planet parade was just last year in May-June.
So, why am I so adamant about talking about this event? We’re living in a time where misinformation is at its peak, and many feast on the gullibility of the common people. Many malicious are using this opportunity to extort unsuspecting audiences by claiming this to be an extraordinary situation with significant astrological effect and many people are falling into their traps by believing them. So, please spread awareness among your friends and relatives.
What’s in the sky this week?
Monday, January 20
After sunset, look towards the west to find Venus and Saturn. If you have been observing them for some time, you’ll notice Saturn has moved lower than Venus.
Compare this to a few days ago when Saturn was above Venus.
Tuesday, January 21
Observe Mars close to the bright star Pollux in the constellation Gemini. It is an orange-hued red giant, located some 33 light-years away. We have even detected an exoplanet around it!
Wednesday, January 22
Around midnight, observe the famous beehive cluster in the constellation Cancer. Near the Zenith, it should be visible with a telescope.
Thursday, January 23
With the moon absent, this is your time to look for the fainter objects. Can you dare find Neptune. If you’re in a dark sky site, this is your time!
Around an hour after sunset, look for the constellation Pisces in the west. Try to find the Circlet of Pisces, an oval-shaped asterism that forms the head of the fish. he southeasternmost star in the Circlet is magnitude 4.5 Lambda Piscium. You can find Neptune with binoculars or any small scope about 4.7° southeast of this star. It should have a bluish hue.
That’s all for this week. Have a great week!
Brilliant work !!! So beautiful