Skywatchers can expect an equipment-free view of Mars on June 3
Hold your horses, astronomy enthusiasts! Before you get too excited about the upcoming planetary alignment on June 3, experts warn it may not be as spectacular as some might think. While six planets, including Jupiter, Mercury, Uranus, Mars, Neptune, and Saturn, will indeed align along the ecliptic path in the early morning hours of June 3rd, not all will be visible to the naked eye from Earth, ABC News reported.
“People who plan to rise early and step outside on June 3 expecting to see the bloated disk of Jupiter or the rings of Saturn in a single glance will be, at the very least, quite disappointed,” prominent broadcast meteorologist Joe Rao wrote in a recent debunking column for Space.
Well, experts from NASA and Astronomers Without Borders said that June 3 is not the best time to see the planetary parade. That’s because Uranus, Mercury and Jupiter will be swallowed up by the sun’s light and be too close to the horizon to be visible.
However, the experts are saying that skygazers should wait until the end of the month to see the planetary alignment.
“To me, the closest thing to a planet parade is June 29th, when you’ll have Saturn, the third-quarter Moon, Mars, and Jupiter arrayed across the sky at dawn,” Preston Dyches, a public engagement specialist for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory told USA TODAY.
NASA in a release said, “Some online sources have shared excitement about a “parade of planets” visible in the morning sky in early June (June 3 in particular). In reality, only two of the six planets supposedly on display (Saturn and Mars) will be visible. In early June, Jupiter and Mercury will be at or below the horizon in the morning twilight and not visible; Uranus and Neptune are far too faint to see without a telescope, especially as the morning sky brightens.”
Joe Rao wrote that skywatchers can expect an equipment-free view of Mars on June 3 around 4:00 a.m. ET, which will be shining in a “relatively bright orange light.”
Meanwhile, in 2023, the five-planet alignment of Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus and Mars occurred on March 28.
“You’re worrying that planetary alignments are rare, but honestly, we get one every couple of years,” Bill Cooke, who heads NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center, told “Good Morning America” at the time.
