All of the planets in the solar system are currently visible together in the night sky, giving astronomers a striking sight to end the year.
Look up to the sky!
As 2022 draws to a close, astronomy enthusiasts can admire the view of all the planets of our solar system (except of course Earth) together in the night sky. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will be visible simultaneously with the naked eye, in that order, starting from the southwest horizon. Mercury, the smallest planet in the solar system, will still be difficult to see, even if the conditions are optimal.
For their part, the two planets farthest from the solar systemUranus and Neptune, can be observed with binoculars or a telescope. The first will be visible between Mars and Jupiter, the second between Saturn and Jupiter.
The fact that all the other planets are visible at the same time is not particularly rare since it happens once every one to two years. However, the show is still interesting.
The last time all the planets were visible simultaneously in the sky was last June. During this event, the five planets visible to the naked eye (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) were also lined up in the sky in the same sequential order as they physically orbit the Sun. Such an alignment had not happened for eighteen years.
This last planetary procession should last until the end of the yearfollowing which Mercury will disappear.
Several missions in progress
Some of these planets are or will be the object of missions. The BepiColombo probe is due to reach Mercury in 2025. Once there, the spacecraft is expected to release two orbiters, each going into a different orbit. A European probe and two American probes will focus also on Venuslong set aside in favor of Mars, which is currently the subject of a major mission aimed at bringing back the first samples from another planet on Earth.
For its part, Jupiter is always observed by Juno which is currently focusing on one of its moons: Io. Finally, we know that United States and the Chine have views on Uranus. Like Neptune, this planet has only been visited once thanks to the passage of the Voyager 2 probe at the end of the 1980s. Since then, it has only been scrutinized by instruments on the ground and incidentally by Hubble.
