---
title: "Five Planets Are Aligning in the Sky Right Now"
description: "Look West to the horizon around sunset, and you should be able to witness five planets — Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus, and Mars — lined up near the Moon."
date: "2023-03-28"
modified: "2023-03-28"
authors:
  - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré"
    job_title: "Senior Staff Writer"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/five-planets-are-aligning"
categories:
  - "Off-World"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "Astronomy"
  - "planets"
  - "stars"
  - "the digest"
---

# Five Planets Are Aligning in the Sky Right Now

![Look West to the horizon around sunset, and you should be able to witness five planets — Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus, and Mars — lined up near the Moon.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/five-planets-are-aligning.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Getty Images\</em\>*

## Full House

The planets are aligning. Literally. Right now.

And if you happen to glance at roughly where the Sun has just set on the horizon over the next few nights, you should be able to witness five planets — Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus, and Mars — all lined up together, right near the Moon.

According to the [*Associate Press*](<https://apnews.com/article/five-planets-align-night-sky-jupiter-mars-d0170eea9fee67680cf2f1bca68a4fcf?utm_source=ForYou&utm_medium=HomePage&utm_id=Taboola>), a telescope isn't necessary, but binoculars certainly won't hurt as Mercury and Uranus are likely to be a bit dimmer than their much brighter brethren — [Mercury](<https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/mercury/exploration/?page=0&per_page=10&order=launch_date+desc%2Ctitle+asc&search=&tags=Mercury&category=33>) is so close to the Sun that its own glow is easily obscured, and [Uranus](<https://lovethenightsky.com/see-uranus-through-a-telescope/#:~:text=Uranus%20orbits%20the%20sun%20at,of%20patience%20to%20locate%20it.>), conversely, is just very far away from our home planet.

"Wait until the sun has set and then go out and look low in that bright part of the sky where the Sun has just set with binoculars," Rick Fienberg, senior contributing editor of *Sky & Telescope* magazine, [told *NPR*](<https://www.npr.org/2023/03/27/1166320219/planetary-alignment-moon-march-uranus-venus-how-to-guide-instructions-rare>), "and you should see brighter Jupiter next to fainter Mercury."

Though tonight will be the best night for viewing, the planets will be visible for the next few days. And excitingly, as long as you have clear skies, they should be visible from anywhere on Earth.

"That's the beauty of these planetary alignments," NASA astronomer Bill Cooke told the *AP*. "It doesn't take much."

## OG Netflix

If you do happen to miss the event, it's not the end of the world. Alignments aren't exactly a rare occurrence; [per *Axios*](<https://www.axios.com/2023/03/28/planet-alignment-march-2023>), the last five-planet alignment happened back in June 2022, and mini-alignments happen every few months.

Nonetheless, it's an astrological event worth catching in person.

"I want people to want to go outside and look up. I want people to be excited about looking up at the stars and planets," Jackie Faherty, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History, told *NPR*. "Right now what's happening is something that you might not realize does happen quite a bit, which is the planets are up a lot. This is not a particularly rare event, but it is an event that you should celebrate and you should want to go outside and look at."

"The nighttime sky is the original Netflix," she added. "It's the original entertainment, and people lost that, because they're disconnected from looking up, and they're very connected to looking down at their phone or their tablet or their computer or whatever. Because things \[can be\] bright in the sky, when you accidentally look up, they will look striking to you."

**READ MORE:** [*It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a pretty neat planetary viewing!*](<https://www.npr.org/2023/03/27/1166320219/planetary-alignment-moon-march-uranus-venus-how-to-guide-instructions-rare>) \[*NPR*\]

 **More on stargazing:** [*Experts Say Annoying New Satellite Might Be Brighter than Any Star*](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/experts-new-satellite-night-sky>)

## Author
At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride."

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/mharrisondupre.bsky.social>)