by One of the things I’ve enjoyed over the past 22 years writing the Night Sky column for Space.com is alerting readers to hoaxes or celestial lies that are widely circulated on the internet.
Although I have tried my best to steer readers away from such fallacies, I am still amazed at how many people accept them as fact. In recent years, some of these claims that have been widely circulated online have gone pretty far off the wall. So much so that you would think that in the modern, technological world of the 21st century very few, if any, would be wasted.
But in reality – and I think because most people today are driven by the mantra “If it’s on social media it must be true” – a surprisingly large number of people put bamboo on and do the hikes this degree on their face.
And then, unfortunately, they spread them widely to family and friends.
Related: What equipment do you need to see and photograph the planets
Previously heavenly Shams
The most famous, of course, was the annual “Mars Hoax”, which reared its ugly head every August for about ten years. Ever since the Red Planet’s historic close approach to Earth in August 2003, a spurious story has spread online in the years that followed, suggesting that Mars was due to swing across the sky on a particular night in late August, and to the same extent. as the full moon. Completely false, of course, but every year there were many people who really believed that it was going to happen!
Then in 2015, a story widely shared on the web claimed that January 4, 2015 was “Zero Gravity Day,” a date when people on Earth would be able to experience weightlessness if they jumped into the air at a given moment. One has to wonder how many people around the world tried to swim that day.
And later that same year, a fake news site reported that the Earth it would get dark on November 15, 2015, just before 3 am and then, the eerie darkness was to finally lift on November 30, at 4:45 pm
Here we are again
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Every time such crazy stories appear on the internet, I get inquiries from people wanting to clarify (“Is this true?”), or, in the case of the Mars Hoax, questions like: “Where is the Where and when is it best for me to see this?”
To that end, I am experiencing Déjà vu, because in the last few days the number of people sending me messages regarding a “rare event” called the name has increased. “Parade of the Planets” which will be visible before sunrise on June 3.
Supporting this claim is a graphic that has been widely circulated, especially on Facebook, where there are comments such as:
“That sounds exciting!”
“This is what I’ve been looking forward to”
“Many recent astral phenomena,” and
“One more chance to see something unusual.”
Those last two comments are no doubt referring to the recent solar eclipse and northern lights display.
And now many are under the impression that another great celestial event is coming on the first Monday of June.
Except it isn’t.
Creator unknown
First let’s examine the ersatz graphics in question. There is no mention of who designed it, it is just “out there” for all to see. It shows six planets positioned along a diagonal that extends upwards from the horizon of a tree-shaped silhouette (no direction indicated). And all the planets are shown as we would see them through a telescope.
Unfortunately, a certain percentage of the population is unaware that you can’t see the planets with the naked eye as disks (for proof, go back to the Mars Hoax) … or Saturn’s famous rings for that matter. With your eyes alone, the brightest planets appear simply as faintly twinkling stars.
So people planning to get up early and step outside on June 3 expecting to see Jupiter’s bloated disk or Saturn’s rings in one glance will be disappointed.
Where are they?
And seeing some of these planets will be a problem in itself.
Mercury and Jupiter, for example, will be very close to the sun’s position in the sky and will therefore likely be obscured by the brilliant glow of the morning twilight. Binoculars may allow you to catch a glimpse of these two worlds, but in addition to trying to see them against daylight, they will also be extremely low on the east-northeast horizon; both rise only about half an hour before sunset.
So, if you don’t have a nice flat horizon, without any obstructions (like buildings or trees in the distance) you’ll probably miss seeing the smallest planet of the solar system (Mercury) near the largest planet (Jupiter).
Then comes Uranus, which is visible to the naked eye, except under very dark skies, not lightly polluted; it is, in fact, close to the threshold of visibility for most people without the use of any optical aid. Of course, to see something so faint, you’ll need to know exactly where it is in the sky; a good star map will definitely help. But all of this is really just a moot point on June 3rd, since Uranus will rise just an hour before sunrise, when the morning twilight will be well advanced. So, like Mercury and Jupiter, there is no chance of seeing Uranus either.
Interestingly, whoever created this deceptive sky graphic left out the most obvious celestial sight of all: the moon. On Monday morning, June 3, early risers will see a beautiful crescent moon hanging low in the eastern sky. At about 4 a.m. local daylight, about half a dozen degrees to the right will be a relatively bright orange light; that is Mars. Finally! A planet that is visible without the aid of binoculars or a telescope.
Next comes the farthest planet from the sun, Neptune, which is far too faint to detect with the unaided eye, located at an average distance from the sun of 2.8 billion miles. It is more than six times dimmer than Uranus. So, there’s no chance of seeing that planet either, unless you have access to a dark sky, a star chart and at least a good pair of binoculars or a telescope.
Finally, there is Saturn, which rises in the south-southeast around 2 a.m. But the best view of it comes as the eastern sky begins to brighten, when Saturn hangs fairly high in the southeast. Again, the rings are invisible unless you are using a telescope; to the unaided eye Saturday appears as a rather bright light shining with a yellow-white tint.
So, if you go out at around 3:30 or 4 am on Monday morning, don’t expect to be entertained by the sight of a parade of planets. You will likely see a crescent moon and a bright orange “star” shining to the right (Mars) and further to the right another relatively bright “star” shining with a yellow-white color (Saturn).
Not “rare” at all!
This is not to say that the planets will not align. Although you won’t be able to see four of them visually (Mercury, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune) they will all still be out there and indeed lie in a straight line in space.
That’s because all the planets revolve around the sun along more or less the same orbital plane. From this place on earth, that orbit is called the ecliptic and all the planets seem to be traveling on it. And it is not very rare to see that several planets line up along the ecliptic from our cosmic perspective here on Earth.
Just wait until next winter
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And if you want to see a real eye-catching planet – four bright planets plus a beautiful waxing crescent moon thrown in as a bonus, in just one glance – then this winter, be sure to see the night sky in the early evening. shortly after 6 pm on January 31, 2025 and/or February 1.
That first night, you’ll be able to catch the moon sitting to the lower right of Saturn and the following night the moon will have moved to the lower left of bright Venus. Meanwhile, high in the southeast, Jupiter will shine with brilliant silver light among the stars of Taurus the Bull, along with the beautiful open star clusters of the Hyades and Pleiades.
And finally, well up in the eastern sky, and which will be a conspicuous triangle with the bright stars Pollux and Castor of Gemini, the Twins, like the amber colored Mars, appearing more than six times brighter than we see now .
Compared to all that, the June 3rd “Parade of the Planets” can best be described with one word: magical.
Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York’s Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Free natural history magazine,the The Farmers’ Almanac and other publications.
