<![CDATA[ Sete planetas alinhados na próxima sexta-feira ]]>

Next Friday, a rare phenomenon will occur in space: the alignment, visible from Earth, of seven planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Of these, five planets will be visible to the naked eye because they are closest to Earth.

These are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The other two planets (Uranus and Neptune) will only be visible with a telescope. The best time to see the planetary alignment is just after sunset. To see the planets aligned, you need to look to the West, and the areas on the globe with the best visibility are those in the Northern Hemisphere near the Equator.

In order to eliminate interference from the light generated by public lighting in cities, observations must be made in open, cloud-free terrain. According to the US Space Agency, NASA, the phenomenon will only be repeated in 2492 (25th century). The planetary alignment poses a challenge for astronomical observation, but contrary to popular belief, it does not have a gravitational effect on the Earth.

The gravitational influence of the aligned planets is incomparable to that caused by the Moon and the Sun, which regulate, for example, the variation of the tides.