
Mars approaches Earth before a unique parade of planets in February 2025
Kyiv • UNN
Mars will reach its maximum brightness and closest point to Earth on January 16. On February 28, 2025, a rare parade of seven planets will take place, which will be repeated only in 2492.
The historic parade of planets is just over a month away, but right now, the 7th largest planet in the Solar System, Mars, is in the spotlight. The “Red Planet” is at its maximum brightness, closest to the Earth and in conjunction with the Moon.
Reported by UNN with reference to The Guardian and DW.
Details
Mars, known as the “Red Planet,” is at perihelion (the closest point in a celestial body's orbit or the closest a celestial object comes to Earth - ed.), at a distance of 96,560,640 km from our planet, providing maximum light. Due to the significant ellipticity of Mars' orbit, this distance varies by tens of millions of kilometers from one close approach to the next. This year's perigee is not very spectacular from an astronomical point of view, but it will still allow observers to enjoy its views.
On January 16, Mars reaches “opposition”. In this configuration, the planet is located directly opposite the Sun in the sky as viewed from Earth. Turning to face the Sun, Mars reflects the maximum amount of light, which means that the planet will be the brightest.
Parade of planets in February
In addition to observing Mars, astronomy enthusiasts will have another exciting event - on February 28, 2025, a unique planetary parade will take place that will not be repeated until 2492.
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune will all appear in the sky at the same time. They will do so in an orderly fashion, forming a kind of line - a phenomenon known as planetary alignment.

In both cases, a telescope will have to be used to identify all celestial bodies.
For reference
What is planetary alignment?
“Planetary alignment” is not strictly speaking an astronomical phenomenon, but rather a visual effect. The planets actually appear this way only when observed from Earth.
The explanation for this effect is that the planets orbit the Sun, following a trajectory marked by the star's gravity. This imaginary line is known as the “ecliptic.”
“We sometimes observe planets approaching each other in the sky because we see them along a line as they move along a space track,” NASA's explanation reads.

“Some of the planets have slightly tilted orbits above or below this line, but they are all more or less even, like grooves on a disk, due to the way stars like our Sun form,” LiveScience adds.
Recall
SpaceX plans to launch five spacecraft to Mars within two years.
The BepiColombo mission has taken a series of new images of Mercury during its sixth flyby of the planet. The spacecraft, launched in 2018, is scheduled to land on Mercury in 2026 for a detailed study.