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image credit & copyright: Alex Cherney (Terrastro, TWAN)


it is not a coincidence that planets line up

that's because all of the planets orbit the Sun in (nearly) a single sheet called the plane of the ecliptic

when viewed from inside that plane -- as Earth dwellers are likely to do -- the planets all appear confined to a single band

it is a coincidence, though, when several of the brightest planets all appear in nearly the same direction

featured above, six planets and Earth's Moon were all imaged together, just after sunset, from Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, Australia

a second band is visible across the top of this tall image -- the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy



















in apod.nasa.gov/apod