Watch:A Planetary Alignment on January 25?

If you’re on social media at all, by now you might have seen the breathless announcements of a planetary alignment on January 25, 2025. A flurry of videos and memes is claiming that all eight planets will be in a line on one side of the sun and visible in our nighttime sky. Is it true? Nope. Why January 25? We have no idea. But there will be six planets in our evening sky throughout January. And yes, they’re in a line … like always.

The planets in our solar system orbit our sun more or less in a flat plane. The Earth-sun plane – called the ecliptic – more or less defines the plane of the planets and sun. So, in our sky, the planets always appear somewhere along a line. That line across our sky – the path of the sun and moon – is just a 2-dimensional representation of the 3-dimensional plane of our solar system.

So the planets always travel in a line across our sky. And that means that – if there’s more than one planet up there … it always lines up with any other planet (and the moon and sun).

And in January 2025 there are four bright planets – and two faint planets – in the evening sky. Yup. They’re arrayed in a line across the sky.

Of the six planets in January’s evening sky, two won’t be visible, without charts and probably optical aid. So that leaves 4 bright planets in a line across our sky. Why a line? Because the planets orbit our sun in a flat plane, so they are always located along a line in our sky. Astronomers call this line the ecliptic (the green line on this chart). It’s the path our sun takes in the sky. Here’s what you’ll likely see in January 2025 from mid-northern latitudes.

Planets on January 25, 2025

So what will the sky look like on January 25, 2025? Below you’ll find two views of the sky with all six planets – the four bright ones and the two exceedingly faint ones – as seen from mid-latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. Below them, you’ll find more charts, showing what that view looks like from the point of view of someone hovering in space above our solar system.

So you can see that, yes, the planets in the evening sky are arrayed across our sky in a line. Planets in our solar system, when they are visible, are always in a line because they follow the path of the sun – the ecliptic – across our sky. But they aren’t in a line stretching out, one behind another, from the sun, into 3-dimensional space.

And Mercury isn’t even in the evening sky. It’s in the morning sky in January 2025.

Star chart looking straight up with cardinal points on sides and line with planets marked as dots and labeled.

Here’s the same scene as above, with Uranus and Neptune added in. These 2 planets won’t be visible, without charts and probably optical aid. So that leaves 4 bright planets in a line across our sky in January 2025. Image via EarthSky.

Star chart showing the planets and stars and horizon on January 25, 2025.

Here’s a more detailed view, showing what the sky will look like on January 25, 2025, about 90 minutes after darkness falls. You’ll be able to see 4 bright planets and 2 dim ones if you use binoculars. The 7th planet, Mercury, is too close to the sun to see. Image via Stellarium and EarthSky.

Chart showing the solar system, both inner and outer, with orbits and locations of planets.

If you could hover above our solar system and look down on it on January 25, 2025, this is where you’d find the planets. While 6 planets will be arrayed across in our evening sky – 4 visible and 2 not – the planets won’t make a line in 3D space, going outward from the sun. Not even close!

Image via EarthSky.

Don’t miss these January planet events!

Chart showing the full moon next to a red dot representing Mars and below the white dots of the stars Castor and Pollux.

Everyone on Earth will see the Full Wolf Moon on the night of January 13. The crest of the moon’s full phase will come at 22:27 UTC (4:27 p.m. CST) on January 13. And here’s a double whammy! As seen from around the globe, that night’s full moon will lie near the bright red planet Mars. Mars is closest to Earth for this 2-year period on January 12. That’s because Mars is opposite the sun from Earth now, at opposition on January 15-16. And a full moon is also opposite the sun. So it makes sense that this month’s full moon will be near Mars. What’s more, a few lucky observers – in parts of North America, northwest Africa, Azores and Cape Verde Islands – will see the moon occult – or pass in front of – Mars at 4 UTC on January 14 (10 p.m. CST on January 13). If you look outside on the night of January 13 and don’t see Mars … that might be because it’s behind the moon! Look near the moon and Mars for Castor and Pollux, the twin stars of Gemini. The moon, Mars and twin stars will almost be in a straight line, and they’ll be visible all night. Chart via EarthSky.

A series of three charts showing Venus rising and Saturn dropping closer to the horizon. The two dots pass on January 17 and 18.

Here’s another great planet event in January 2025. Venus shines brightly after dark in the western evening sky and will reach its greatest distance from the sun on January 9-10. It’ll set about 4 hours after sunset and is a beacon in a dark sky. Saturn will be there too – it’s less bright than Venus – but they’ll make a lovely pair in the evening sky as they race toward each other in early January. Their closest approach will be on the evening of January 17-18, 2025. The planetary pair will make an eye-catching sight and lie about 2.2 degrees apart at their closest. Afterward, Saturn will be lower in the western sky than Venus. Chart via EarthSky.

CAN you see 6 planets in the sky at once?

The answer to the question above depends on what you mean by “see.” If you mean see with your eye alone, then, yes! You can see four wonderfully bright planets! Start in the west, where the sun has just set. As the sky darkens, you’ll spot Venus easily, because it shines more brightly than any star. At the beginning of the month, golden Saturn is not too far above Venus. And Venus and Saturn will be closest around January 17 and 18. After that, Saturn will be closer to the horizon and Venus will be higher in the sky.

The other two planets that you can see with your eyes alone are Jupiter, which will be bright and higher in the sky than Venus or Saturn when night falls, and Mars, which is reddish and will be rising in the east soon after dark. Earth is passing between Mars and the sun on January 16. So this is our best chance in two years to see Mars! And that’s really what makes the January sky full of planets so very, very special.

Spotting Uranus and Neptune is hard. Uranus is theoretically visible to the eye alone … but requires a very dark sky to be glimpsed with the eye. Binoculars will show it more easily. As for Neptune, no, it’s not visible to the eye alone under any circumstances. Binoculars might show it, but you’ll likely need a telescope to see it.

But here’s the good news. If you’ve identified the first four planets, you can see they trace a rough line from one horizon to the other. And Uranus and Neptune will also be along that line. Charts and more info for seeing Uranus and Neptune here.

Here’s a tip for finding Uranus. Uranus is the 7th major planet outward from our sun. It’s dim! But you might glimpse it, if you have a dark sky. In the general vicinity of Jupiter, you’ll see a fuzzy, dipper-shaped cluster of stars … it’s called the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters. And Uranus is not too far away from the Pleiades. Binoculars will really help. Not sure where to look? Try using Stellarium – setting your observing time and location – to pinpoint Uranus.

Here’s a tip for finding Neptune. Neptune is the 8th planet outward from the sun. It dimmer even than Uranus. But it’s near some other bright objects now: dazzling Venus and bright, golden Saturn. In fact, on January 29 and 30, Neptune will be just a few moon-widths to the side of Venus.

So where’s the outlier, Mercury? While the misinformation churns about planets in the evening sky in January 2025, Mercury is having a pretty good apparition – close to the sun, as always – in the morning sky. Mercury will move into the evening sky in February. But, at that point, Saturn and Neptune will be departing. They’ll all pass each other in the glare of sunset.

Technically, by the end of February, all seven planets will be in the sky at once. But Neptune will be impossible to see so close to the sun, and Mercury and Saturn will be challenging.

Planets near the moon in January 2025

So the planets in our solar system orbit in a flat plane around the sun. And that’s why we always see them arrayed in a line – along the path of the sun – in our sky. And not just the planets, but the moon, too, travels along this path. So, every month, the moon passes planets.

On January 3, 2025, the crescent moon was close to Venus.

On January 4, the crescent moon is closer to Saturn.

By January 5, the moon is near Neptune.

On January 9, the moon is near Uranus. Depending on your location on the globe, you might find it among the stars of the Pleiades star cluster.

On January 10, the moon is alongside Jupiter, still tracking the ecliptic, or sun’s path.

By January 13, the full moon cozies up to Mars in the east.

A great planetary alignment?

So the January 25, 2025, great planetary alignment idea does have a grain of truth. But … the planets aren’t going to be strung out on one side of the sun, one behind another.

The team at EarthSky has been presenting night sky information for nearly 50 years. And we’ve seen the term great planetary alignment tossed around now and again, probably first with the idea of a Jupiter Effect in the 1970s and ’80s. Has it ever been true? No.

But could it be true? Could all eight major planets in our solar system – Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune – make a single line on one side of the sun? When will that happen? The answer, apparently, is never. In Jean Meeus’ book Mathematical Astronomy Morsels, he said our eight planets will line up to within 3.6 degrees of sky every 396 billion years. The sun is currently about 4.6 billion years old and will bloat into a red giant some 5 to 6 billion years from now, swallowing the inner planets in the process.

So, no, we’ll never see the planets form a line on one side of the sun.

But, sometimes, we can appreciate the beauty and wonder of seeing several bright planets arrayed across our sky. And January 2025 is one of those times!

Earthsky