How many of you have seen “Lara Croft: The Cradle of Life”? The film revolves around a celestial event where all the planets appear, from Earth, to be lined up one behind the other. This supposedly results in catastrophic events on Earth. Thankfully, according to the movie, this happens only once every 5,000 years. Moreover, Hollywood notwithstanding, it CAN NEVER happen.
A planetary alignment means that 3 or more planets line up in a row, as seen from the Earth, in the same area of the sky, that is, a “parade of planets”. The planets lie ROUGHLY on a line called the ecliptic, the path that the Sun appears to follow against the background of stars as we on Earth orbit the Sun. The parade can be tens of degrees in length.
A planetary conjunction is when 2 or more planets appear to be close in the sky. Typically, ‘close’ means within a few degrees. Note that a conjunction can be between other astronomical objects, not just planets. However, for today, we are considering just planetary conjunctions. The Cradle of Life film depicts a total conjunction of all 8 planets other than Earth. The film was produced before Pluto was demoted.
The total conjunction depicted in Cradle of Life is impossible, because the planets are not located in exactly the same plane, i.e. some lie above or below the ecliptic. Hence, they cannot ‘line up’ exactly.
The most recent planetary alignment was June 3. The ‘parade’ spanned 73 degrees in the eastern sky just before sunrise. However, the media over-hyped the event as only 2 planets were visible to the naked eye. However, on June 29 at 4:45 am MDT, Jupiter, Mars, a crescent Moon, and Saturn will be on display. They will span about 78 degrees. Mars will be the most challenging, because it’s the faintest of those objects.
The most spectacular planetary conjunctions are when 2 or more planets are within 1 degree, about twice the diameter of the full moon, AND are naked eye visible. Likely the best one in 2024 will be August 14 when Mars and Jupiter will be 1/3 of a degree apart from about 3:30 am MDT until an hour before sunrise at 5.30 am MDT.
Both alignments and conjunctions can be wonderful to observe. AND you don’t have to worry about any catastrophes!!
You have been listening to “Western Slope Skies”, produced by members of the Black Canyon Astronomical Society and KVNF Community radio. I’m Bryan Cashion.
REFERENCES
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conjunction_(astronomy)
https://starwalk.space/en/news/what-is-planet-parade
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_conjunction
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecliptic
