Every planet in the solar system apart from the one that's under your feet will be visible in the night sky at the same tonight, closing the year with what the Virtual Telescope Project calls a "grand tour of the solar system." The project is hosting a livestream of the cosmic show. The five planets visible to the naked eye—Venus, Mercury, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars—will be lined up in that order starting in the southwest horizon, Space.com reports. People using a telescope or binoculars will be able to spot Uranus between Jupiter and Mars. Neptune will be visible between Saturn and Jupiter.
The clearest view will be around 30 minutes after sunset, with Venus disappearing from view around 40 minutes later, the Guardian reports. The planets will appear closest together on Thursday night, but they will be visible in night skies until the end of the year. "These nights, we can see all the planets of our solar system at a glance, soon after sunset. It happens from time to time, but it is always a spectacular sight," says Virtual Telescope Project astronomer Gianluca Masi, per Newsweek. The alignment happens every year or two, on average. In June this year, the planets appeared in the same order they are from the sun for the first time since 2004. (More astronomy stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
