If you are an early riser, the ongoing week has something special in store for you. Reports suggest that the treat will be even greater for individuals who will get up early on October 26. During this week, Jupiter, Venus and Mars will be crossing paths forming a creepy pre-Halloween view, which experts refer to as “planetary trio”. For those who don’t know: the term “planetary trio” is used for any three planets that group together within a circle boasting a diameter of 5 degrees.
These three planets, according to experts, will be forming a cosmic triangle while orbiting the sun on their regular paths. The triangle will be visible till October 29 (the phenomenon became visible sometime on October 24), but for the best view one will need to look at the sky on October 26, prior to dawn. Experts are saying that the separate journeys of these three planets around the Sun are meeting for the final time before 2021.
All planets in our home solar system revolve around the sun on a flat plane. When we look at the sky, what we get to see is a slim edge-way of that flat plane. The orbiting speed of each planet is obviously different based on the distance between the sun and a planet’s orbit; the bigger the distance, the lower are their orbiting speeds. While Jupiter and Mars respectively take 12 years and two years to orbit the sun, Venus requires just 225 days for completing a full revolution around the sun.
As a result of this varying orbiting speed, when we look at the sky from the Earth’s surface, we often see two planets crossing each other on their respective orbits. The event is regarded more special when three planets cross each other in the same manner giving birth to a planetary trio. This time the three planets crossing each other are Jupiter, Venus and Mars.
Jupiter and Venus are respectively regarded as the 4th brightest and 3rd brightest celestial structures in our universe (the first two positions in this list are occupied by the sun and the moon). So, viewing Jupiter and Venus in the morning sky will not be difficult for star gazers. However, for seeing Mars, which is much fainter than the other two planets in the trio, one would need to get up a few hours before sunrise.
