STAR gazers will be able to see three planets light up tonight as Venus reaches its greatest distance from the sun – this is how you can see it.
If the weather and cloud conditions are right in your area, you could see Venus with the naked eye at 5.35pm EDT (21.35 GMT), according to In-The-Sky.org.
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This is because our planetary neighbor will be at its greatest distance from the sun on Sunday night, making it easily visible.
With a magnitude of -4.4, Venus will be fairly easy to spot in the eastern sky.
At its greatest elongation, the planet will be 47 degrees west of the sun, which will make it appear 50 per cent lit.
According to Nakedeyeplants.com, greatest elongation is “the time at which the planet’s terminator — the line separating the light and dark sides of the planet — appears perfectly straight through telescopes, essentially dividing Venus into two perfect halves; this is known as the dichotomy”.
Star gazers will also be able to see Saturn and Mars, with the trio appearing very close together and are expected to get even closer through to the end of the month.
Venus will then move out of view and Saturn and Mars get ready for a very close encounter at the beginning of April.
It comes as a space mission to Venus could find evidence that life once existed there.
Two Nasa-led missions to Venus – dubbed DAVINCI+ and VERITAS – are scheduled to trek to the planet next door and break through its violent atmosphere at the end of this decade.
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With the information, data and images mined from the missions, researchers may get an answer as to whether Venus once looked like Earth.
“That quest for habitability is part of our search for signs of life in the Nasa framework,” Dr. James Garvin, the principal investigator for the DAVINCI+ mission to Venus, told The Sun in an exclusive interview.
“We can all dare to hope.”
The DAVINCI+ mission will be equipped with special cameras to see through the thick atmosphere and additional technology to measure the chemical content of that atmosphere.
“We expect to discover a whole new catalog of chemistry,” Dr Garvin said.
The DAVINCI+ team does not expect the probe that will touchdown to last long – Dr Garvin predicts just 12 to 18 minutes of stable communication – but much will be achieved by mapping the planet from above and tracking the chemistry of the Venusian atmosphere.
“We can meet every one of our science objectives and others without ever touching the ground,” Dr Garvin said.
Set to launch in 2029, DAVINCI+ will forge through space for six months until arriving at our neighbor planet.
When DAVINCI+ arrives, VERITAS will already be orbiting Venus on a mission of its own.
