They are here: Mercury (the closest to the horizon at sunrise), Venus (the brightest in the east before dawn) and Mars (dark red) in a triangle at dawn. All more or less follow the path of the sun through our sky (green line). Wait a minute, there are only three planets. Where is the fourth planet? Right under your feet!
Rocky planet before sunrise
All four rocky planets can be located in the solar system – Mercury, Venus, Earth (look beneath your feet) and Mars that appears before dawn in mid-February 2022. These are the four main rocky planets in the Solar System (which are constructed of rock or metal). Readers can observe them at breakfast in the early morning to welcome the busy day that follows.
About two and a half hours before sunrise, the inhabitants of the Earth's northern hemisphere can see Venus rise first on the horizon in the morning. Venus's brilliant white light makes it unique, with its glittering highlight on February 9, 2022, peaking throughout the year. Venus is most likely to shine at a longitude of -4.6, which will be the brightest light ever received by its neighbor Earth. If the reader does not want to miss the beautiful light of Venus, they can face the direction of the sunrise at dawn – to welcome its arrival.
The next one is Mars, at a location in the Northern Hemisphere, rising about two hours before the Sun. Mars will appear north of Earth, farther southeast from the horizon, or in the lower right of Venus. It is far from the solar system. From Earth, it is in a position behind the Sun. Mars now looks dark, with a brightness of only +1.4, but in fact Mars is red. Mars will be much darker than Venus, but still brighter than the surrounding stars.
The last one is the closest planet to the Sun, Mercury. Also in the Northern Hemisphere, it is brighter than Mars +0.1. It rises more than an hour before the sun, so you have plenty of time to capture the beautiful images of the three planets in the same sky before the sun's rays destroy vision.
So, what about in the Southern Hemisphere? Don't worry, your vision is even better than in the Northern Hemisphere! Before dawn, you will see higher planets in the eastern sky. Anywhere on Earth, a specific view of the astrological instrument can be viewed.
In February 2022, the three planets will be in motion in front of Sagittarius. By February 15, Mercury will enter the constellation of Capricorn, the constellation of Semania.
This star map shows the view of the mid-latitude region of the Northern Hemisphere on February 12, at about 5:45 a.m. EST. From February 11 to 16, 2022, Mars will slide between the teapot and teaspoon stars in Sagittarius (drawn with a red line). Image courtesy of CyberSky 5.
Summary: Before sunrise from February 11 to February 16, four rocky planets will be seen – Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Earth.
Related knowledge
Venus is the second closest planet to the Sun in the Solar System. In English, it is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. As the second brightest natural object visible in Earth's night sky (after the Moon), Venus casts shadows and is also visible to the naked eye during the day. Venus is located in the orbit of the Earth. So whether it's falling from the west after dusk or rising from the east shortly before dawn, it seems that it will never be far from the sun. Venus orbits the Sun every 224.7 Earth days.
Its synodic days are 117 Earth days long and its rotation period is 243 Earth days. Venus rotates longer around its axis than any other planet in the Solar System, and it rotates in the opposite direction to all the planets in the Solar System except Uranus. This means that if we stand on Venus, what we will see is the sun rising in the west and setting in the east. Venus does not have any moons, and among the many planets in the solar system, it and Mercury have this characteristic.
Mercury is the smallest planet in the solar system and the closest planet to the Sun. It takes only 87.97 Earth days to rotate around the Sun, the shortest orbital period of any solar planet. In English, it is named after the Roman god Mercury. Mercury was the god of commerce, the messenger of the gods, and the mediator between gods and mortals, corresponding to hermes (Ἑρμῆς) in the Greek mythological system. Like Venus, Mercury orbits the Sun as an underplanet in Earth's orbit, and from Earth it never has a visual distance of more than 28° from the Sun.
We seem to be more likely to see Mercury at dusk. In fact, such a line-of-sight means that we can only see it near the western horizon after sunset or near the eastern horizon before sunrise. At this point, it appears to be a bright star-like object. Mercury is more difficult to observe than Venus. Observed from Earth using telescopes, Mercury shows a full phase range similar to that of Venus and the Moon. Mercury's period of inward conjunction with Earth (i.e., closest to Earth) averages 116 Earth days.
Mars is the fourth closest planet to the Sun in the Solar System and the second smallest planet in the Solar System, and it is larger than Mercury. In English, Mars is named after Mars, the Roman god of war. Due to the relationship between hematite that is widely present on the surface of Mars, Mars has a different reddish appearance from other celestial bodies visible to the naked eye, so it is also known as the "Red Planet". Mars is a thin-atmosphere terrestrial planet with a surface of impact craters, canyons, dunes and gravel that often conjures up images of the Moon, as well as Earth's valleys, deserts, and polar ice sheets.
Because the rotation period and the inclination of the axis of rotation (the tilt of the axis of rotation relative to the plane of the ecliptic) are similar to those of Earth, Mars also has four seasons, and its cycles of day and night and four seasons are similar to those of Earth. Mount Olympus is the tallest known mountain and largest volcano on the planets of the Solar System, and it sits on Mars alongside The Sailor Valley, one of the largest canyons in the Solar System. The smooth Polaris Basin in the Northern Hemisphere covers 40 percent of the volcano, and the basin could mean a massive impact. Mars has two irregularly shaped and small moons: Phobos and Phobos.
BY：Kelly Kizer Whitt
FY：Astronomical volunteer team
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