Some would call the event a “planetary alignment,” but others, including Dr. Danielle Pahud, an instructor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manitoba and director of the Lockhart Planetarium, prefer to use the term “planetary parade.”

She outlines her reasoning, saying, “I think when most people hear alignment, they imagine all of the planets in a row kind of a tight row, and that’s not the case. The planets all orbit the sun in the same direction. The planets that are closer in, like Mercury orbit very. They go all the way around the sun once every few months. And the planets further out, like Jupiter are much slower; Jupiter specifically orbits the sun once every 12 years. It gets longer and longer as you move further and further out. But they all orbit in the same plane, called the ecliptic, roughly on a flat surface. So, when we look out at the night sky, this flat surface kind of looks like an arc and it’s the same arc that the sun travels over a day. The planets are not all going to be in the same place, right now all the planets except Mercury are visible in the night sky.”

To read the entire article, please follow the link to Portage Online.

Danielle Pahud was also on CBC Manitoba’s Information Radio talking about the planetary alignment. Listen to the entire conversation on Information Radio, MB or watch the interview on YouTube.