‘Parade of
Planets’ on 25th Jan 25
The Truth
behind the Hype
“A
lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its
pants on.”
- Winston Churchill
If popular media reports are to be believed, something sensational is going to happen in the night sky on 25Jan25. In actual fact, that day is as likely to be different from any other day in the calendar as water in one river is different from the one in another.
The Context
Social media is at it again –
sensationalizing mundane and repetitive astronomical phenomena and misleading
the populace to believe that something extraordinary is due to happen soon in
the night sky. An oft-repeated theme is
the so called ‘alignment’ and ‘parade of planets’, implying that the planets of
our solar system put on some sort of cosmic dance that shouldn’t be missed.
The Facts
The planets go around the Sun in fixed orbits with different periods, varying from 88 days for Mercury which is nearest to the Sun to 165 years for Neptune the farthest. Mercury and Venus lie inside the orbit of the Earth (365 days) whereas the rest of the planets (Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) lie outside earth’s orbit as can be seen in the following illustration adapted from:
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource
From our vantage point on the Earth, all
other objects in the solar system and beyond, including the myriads of stars,
appear to go around in what appear to be nearly circular paths because of earth’s
rotation around its own axis pointed at the pole star. Because of their own differing orbital
periods, the planets appear to move in irregular paths, and at different speeds,
thereby changing their relative positions constantly in the starry firmament as
seen from the Earth. This results in a variety of interesting situations some
of which give rise to what is described in popular imagination as the “parade
of planets”.
The Hype
The popular social media is awash
with grotesquely exaggerated and sanitized accounts of something spectacular,
popularly described as a rare ‘alignment’ and ‘parade’ of planets, happening in
the night sky this month, especially on the 25th!
In one such video report making the
rounds of WhatsApp, I heard with a mixture of consternation and amusement a
high-pitched audio description against the backdrop of colorful visuals that
are mostly an artist’s concoction. Here is a transcript of it very nearly as I
could make out:
“25th
of Jan 2025 is a date humanity will never forget. On this night, all seven planets of our solar
system will align and be visible in the sky.
On Jan 25th, one of the rarest astronomical event is going to
happen in the sky, and it is going to be visible for almost every part of the
world – a very rare astronomical event called ‘parade of planets’ is going to
happen where at least six planets of the solar system named Venus, Mars,
Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus are going to be visible from Earth. But
around the world it will be visible on different timings. Here is the location
and their timings… New Delhi, India, 5:37 PM*… Save this. You will have the
best chance to spot this view right after the sunset. So, make sure you will know your local
sunset timing… So, make sure you will
follow ‘Advancible and be the advanced version of yourself’#”.
[*Actually,
the Sun sets only after this time in New Delhi and in most other parts of
India.
# This is how the message ended, whatever it was
supposed to mean!]
Another report was only slightly less
bombastic in the language it used, but similar in content nonetheless. Yet another
has described the event as a ‘once in 396 billion years planetary alignment’ ignoring the fact that
the universe itself is only about 14.7 billion years old! Another gloats: ‘This celestial phenomenon is not merely a
visual delight; it carries significant implications for personal growth,
productivity, and success’, entwining the hapless wanderers in human affairs as
well.
Here are excerpts from a few other media reports:
- “The alignment will begin on January 21” as if to imply that unusual things start happening suddenly on this day. Mercifully, it is silent about the happenings on 25th!
- “… These Indian cities will see rare event” says the headline in a fortnightly, but doesn’t mention any specifically. It appears to have been intended only for its hype value.
- "Almost every city in India will be able to see the rare planetary alignment". Why not all cities or places? Also, which will miss out, and why?
- “These planetary hangouts happen when several planets appear to line up in the night sky at once”. Perhaps this is something like school children snapping to attention on cue from their teacher.
- One website goes on to say that the planets seem to align in ‘vertical centre to each other’, whatever this means!
The Truth
Now, the truth behind all the hype so persistently perpetrated.
- No earth-shaking astronomical event is expected to happen this month, or in the near future, including 25th January this year.
- The so called ‘alignment’ or ‘parade’ of planets is merely the appearance of (all or most of) the planets of the solar system after sunset and before the following sunrise, generally within a span of a few hours, in the next few weeks.
- This is by no means rare or unusual. In fact, it is a recurring phenomenon. It is not something humanity needs to be particularly interested in!
- The planets certainly do not appear ‘aligned’ when seen in the sky; they may at best appear to do so on a (two dimensional) map.
- Any geometrical alignment of (all) the planets at any time in three-dimensional space is a virtual impossibility.
- What really happens in astronomical terms is that the planets are seen within a narrow imaginary plane of the sky that contains the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. It is also the apparent path of the Sun across the sky as seen from the Earth, called the ecliptic.
The Hope
Now, a few highlights that can make a view of the night sky after sunset during the next few weeks truly worthwhile and memorable:
- The planets can all be seen within a span of a few hours.
- Venus, Jupiter and Mars are very bright and all readily recognizable.
- Mars is especially bright and is nearly in opposition to the Sun.
- Saturn stands out because of its close visual proximity to Venus, the two said to be in conjunction.
- While Uranus and Neptune can only be observed with a telescope*, Mercury can be challenging even at the best of times because of its proximity to the Sun.
- The planets can be seen in a star-studded breathtakingly beautiful winter night sky, making the experience all the more unforgettable.
[* Those who have access to a small telescope can spend their time even more profitably by looking at Saturn for its famous rings, Jupiter for its equally famous Galilean satellites, and a few of the prominent star clusters and nebulae in the winter skies. Interestingly, the rings of Saturn are barely visible even through a telescope because they appear nearly edge-on, a repetitive situation that occurs once in about 15 years.]
Here is a map of the night sky showing the location of all the planets and nearby bright stars on 25th Jan (from the EarthSky.org):
It is instructive to look at the locations
of the planets in terms of their angular positions as presented in a recent
article by J P Bhat and Nitin Ghatbande, discussing the so called ‘planetary
parade’. Here is the relevant diagram
for the night of 25 Jan 25:
Postscript
A reader of my earlier newspaper
article on this topic made the remark:
“Earlier people believed in hypothetical things… now
they believe in hype-thetical things. Anything with hype is true, else to be
ignored. I wonder if people will wake up
their thinking minds or use it to rationalize their own delusions”
I wrote back: “you are expecting
miracles!”
Appendix
