Jupiter, Venus, Mars, Saturn to align together in rare cosmic dance in April

In a rare planetary alignment, Saturn, Mars, Venus, and Jupiter will align together this month. The Moon will join them for the main event.

While Mars and Venus have been immersed in a cosmic dance in the skies above us, April is set to get celestial as Saturn and Jupiter join the two planets to form a rare quartet. Jupiter is set to join mars and Venus from mid-April forming a planetary trio for stargazers across the world.

But, that's not all. By the end of April, Saturn will be joining these three planets for a rare alignment in planetary conjunction similar to the one seen in 2020. During the 2020 grand conjunction, Jupiter and Saturn had aligned together and were visible to the naked eye.

According to the Jet propulsion Laboratory, these conjunctions are not quite as close as that, but still really impressive and they'll make for thrilling sights in the morning sky. An alignment does not mean that these planets will overlap each other or come extremely close to each other, they will still be separated by billions of kilometers in the vastness of space.

The alignment is the result of our orientation with respect to these planets as their views change from month to month as Earth rotates in its orbit around the Sun.

A CELESTIAL DANCE

April began with Venus, Saturn, and Mars being separated by a distance of just six degrees, which has been changing as Mars and Saturn have been coming close to each other. During the first week, Saturn and Mars were separated by less than the width of the full moon. Saturn has since then moved on, increasing its separation from Mars each day.

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By April 14, Jupiter is to rise in the pre-dawn hour, making for a quartet of planets, strung out in a line across the morning sky. Heading into the last week of April, Jupiter will be high enough above the horizon in the hour before sunrise to make it more easily observed.

According to JPL, the two brightest planets in the sky, Venus and Jupiter, are headed for their own ultra-close conjunction on April 30th, similar to the meetup of Mars and Saturn earlier in the month.

THE MAIN EVENT

The last week of April will be one of the most awaited for stargazers across the world, as Jupiter and Venus come together with the crescent moon passing below Saturn on April 25, Mars on April 26, and finally Jupiter and Venus on April 27. According to Space.com, a 12% illuminated crescent moon with Jupiter four degrees to its upper left and Venus hovering five degrees directly above the lunar sliver will be visible.

Venus and Jupiter will stand side-by-side on April 30. Jupiter will appear with three of its four Galilean satellites visible and Venus will look slightly more than half-lit.