this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 63 points 6 days ago (4 children)

An extremely rare planetary alignment will take place on February 28, 2025. Don't miss it — an event like this won’t happen again this decade!

In the evening, just after sunset, seven planets — Saturn, Mercury, Neptune, Venus, Uranus, Jupiter, and Mars — will align in the sky. Four of them (Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Mars) will be easily visible to the naked eye. For Uranus and Neptune, get a pair of binoculars or a small telescope. Saturn will be the most difficult target to see — you'll need to know the exact time for your exact location as the planet hangs close to the Sun.

i hate when people use vague blocks of time to refer to something that we know with 100% certainty.

"YOU WILL NOT BE AWAKE SOMEWHERE WITH THE PERIOD OF APPROXIMATELY 12 HOURS FROM NOW, DO NOT MISS YOUR CHANCE TO DO SOMETHING TODAY"

are we talking like, once every decade, once every two decades, once a century? I gotta have a reference frame here.

[–] Asafum@feddit.nl 9 points 6 days ago

I'm not so sure about the binoculars part there... I have an 8" dobsonian telescope and I have a hard time finding those two.

[–] psud@aussie.zone 5 points 6 days ago

I saw Saturn from a suburban street a week or two ago just after sunset, near the moon and Venus, and it was visible, though my elderly mother in law couldn't see it

[–] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 10 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I lead stargazing classes with my city parks, and I can tell you that it's pretty much impossible to find earth in the night sky.

[–] Dragonstaff@leminal.space 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I don't know where you're searching, but the earth is usually pretty visible at the horizon.

[–] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Idk, bro, I've never seen Earth at the horizon, it's mostly just trees and houses and stuff. Do you have to be in dark skies?

[–] Hupf@feddit.org 22 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] azzblaster@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Thanks for reminding me that this website exists

!xkcd@lemmy.world

[–] azzblaster@sh.itjust.works 12 points 5 days ago (1 children)

He commented that right after texting his gf asking her to call his phone because he can’t find it

[–] anothercatgirl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

I can text people via sms through my cell service provider's web portal even if my phone is off.

[–] TheBrideWoreCrimson@sopuli.xyz 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

The wondrous times we live in.

[–] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 21 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Wait a minute, that's not the order I've learned. Have we been lied to about MVEMJSUNP?

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 23 points 6 days ago

Well, the P is silent.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 15 points 6 days ago

you're talking about the order from the sun, but that's not necessarily how it has to appear in our sky. It's like how the stars in orion's belt are actually stupidly far from each other, and from their perspective they have absolutely nothing to do with each other.

[–] WrenFeathers@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

Years ago, I think I remember seeing a screenshot- could have been from Quora, where someone was asking why we haven’t sent astronauts to the sun.

I lost a pretty big chunk of my faith in humanity that day.

[–] excral@feddit.org 14 points 5 days ago

Just fly at night if you worry it's too hot

[–] ThatGuy46475@lemmy.world 10 points 5 days ago

The sun? But that’s the hottest place on earth

[–] angrystego@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago

It's one of your last... sounds like a threat.

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 8 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Aren’t they always on the plane of the elliptic though?

[–] SippyCup@feddit.nl 9 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Yeah but you can't always see them all together.

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 6 points 6 days ago (2 children)

How is that an alignment though? It’s not like MacGuyver or Lara Croft is going to have to stop some baddies from assembling ancient artefacts in a particular room to unleash arcane terrors into the world just because the planets are sort-of visible together in the sky.

[–] my_hat_stinks@programming.dev 15 points 6 days ago (2 children)

It's an alignment because if you look up at it they're in a line. That's what alignment means, Lara Croft and ancient artifacts are optional.

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 6 days ago

The cool alignment is when they're in alignment all pointed straight at the earth, so you can't really see them all spaced out like this one.

It's a known fiction plot because while the planets do come somewhat close to lining up somewhat often (depending on how loose you want to define somewhat close, and if they also have to be all on one side of the sun), they never actually do. The planets have never actually all lined up perfectly and aren't likely to do so any time in the next 13 trillion years. A moot point since our sun will be burned out a thousand times over by then and the whole system will have fallen apart.

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 1 points 6 days ago

But only in the same sense that they always are! You just can’t see it because of your mortal limitations.

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

I think that actually was a plot in a MacGyver TV movie I vaguely remember from the 90s.

[–] someacnt@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

What is the reason, is it because sometimes some of them are on the other side from the sun?

[–] psud@aussie.zone 3 points 6 days ago

They're in orbits at different distances from the sun and so take different times to complete an orbit. Also we're closer to the sun than most, so circling faster, and further than Venus and Mercury so circling slower, so sometimes some planets appear to be going the wrong way along the ecliptic

Some planets are in resonance with others (for example orbiting 3 times for the other's 4)

So sometimes other planets are on the other side of the sun, sometimes they're on this side of the sun but the opposite side of the sky

[–] Hadriscus@lemm.ee 8 points 6 days ago

ecliptic, yes they are

[–] Enkers@sh.itjust.works 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] moakley@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] Enkers@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Woowwww... double syzygy! What does it mean?!

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 days ago
[–] Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Thought that was someone's desktop theme

[–] RiceMunk@sopuli.xyz 124 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Unfortunately Earth is mostly below the horizon for this one. :(

[–] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

RemindMe: Earth rises above the Earth's horizon, for easy viewing!

[–] psud@aussie.zone 4 points 6 days ago

I live in a valley so the Earth rises in the north and south

[–] TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee 91 points 1 week ago (5 children)
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