Not one, not two, but seven planets are due to line up in the night skies later this week in a relatively rare planetary parade.
The phenomenon will see Mars, Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Mercury align, with some of the planets visible to the naked eye.
Keen astronomers may have already spotted six of the planets in late January or earlier this month, but on 28 February, Mercury will also join the parade.
This will mean a potential of seven planets on display at once, the Greenwich Royal Observatory says.
Here is everything you need to know ahead of the phenomenon and how to maximise your chances of spotting all seven planets.
Why do the planets align?
In simple terms, as the planets in our Solar System orbit the sun, they occasionally line up in space, according to NASA.
The term planetary alignment can refer to apparent line-ups with other planets, the moon, or bright stars.
When this happens, the planets always appear along a line or an arc, NASA adds, due to the way they are viewed from Earth.
How rare is it?
“Planetary alignments, where multiple planets appear close together in the sky, occur periodically but are relatively rare,” Dr Shyam Balaji, researcher…
