Seven stars in a row of celestial signs appear

This year's June 16, "seven stars in a row" celestial phenomenon appeared on the hot search, many platforms also live, and we share this astronomical spectacle.

According to experts, this "seven stars in a row" spectacle on June 16-19 appears. The last time "seven stars in a row" occurred in 2000 on May 5, 22 years ago.

It is said that the "seven stars in a row" will only appear once in 77 years, in the end, which seven stars, let's understand!

We all know that there are eight planets in our solar system, from the inside to the outside Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune (once known as the ninth largest planet Pluto has been demoted, can no longer be called large planets). These planets have different orbital diameters and rotational periods, and if they all happen to lie in an approximately straight line on the side of the Sun, they form a multi-star chain. If all the other seven planets, except the Earth, are in a line at a smaller angle, a spectacular star-studded phenomenon is formed. Needless to ask, the probability of a seven-star pearl in a row is much smaller than that of a three- or five-star pearl in a row.

As of 2020, the most recent "Seven Stars in a Row" occurred on May 5, 2000. In fact, from April 6, the five visible planets, the Moon and the Sun, will slowly move toward each other until May 5, when they will join together at an arc of less than 26. The last "seven stars in a row" occurred on February 5, 1962, at 9:00 p.m., with Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto aligned within 9.3 degrees. The rest of the 16 times are "seven stars in a row".

According to information, on June 16, 2022, from the south to the direction of the sunrise in the east, Saturn, Neptune, Jupiter, Mars, Uranus, Venus, and Mercury will be lined up to form a line. Fans of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury will be able to observe them with the naked eye, while Neptune and Uranus will be invisible without a telescope.

When Mercury appears in the southeast in the morning of June 16, seven large planets, including it, will be located at the same time on the west side of the Sun, lined up in the southeastern sky before sunrise, from east to west, Mercury, Venus, Uranus, Mars, Jupiter, Neptune and Saturn, their distribution angle in the sky does not exceed 100 °, can be completely covered by the field of view, very spectacular! Some netizens jokingly say: Is this finally a collection of seven Dragon Balls?

Of course, not all seven planets can be seen with the naked eye. As Uranus and Neptune are very far away from us, by then their two apparent magnitudes are only +5.9 and +7.8, which are invisible to the naked eye, but if you have an astronomical telescope, then you can not only see Uranus and Neptune but also find an asteroid of +6.8 magnitude between Neptune and Saturn: Vesta.

The auspiciousness of celestial events, five stars out of the east for China

Whenever a rare celestial event occurs, there is always some saying that it represents an "auspicious" or "bad omen", and this time the Seven Stars in a Row is no exception.

In China's ancient texts, the earliest record of the "seven stars in a row" is 206 B.C., and this year has a very special significance in ancient Chinese history. Even in ancient times, multiple stars in a row were not necessarily considered an ominous sign. Since Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto were not visible to the naked eye, the seven stars in a row on June 16 were treated as "five stars in a row" by the ancients and appeared in the southeast.

In Sima Qian's "The Book of History - The Book of Heavenly Officials" there is this passage: "Five stars in the sky, accumulate in the East, China's benefit, accumulate in the West, foreign users benefit."

And correspondingly, on the arm protector of the Han Dynasty Shu brocade, which was unearthed in 1995, there are also embroidered words of "Five stars out of the East benefit China".

These sayings come from the ancient Chinese "five stars", but most of this ancient astrology has been lost so far. The full text of "Five Stars" is about eight dry words, which is quite long. With the efforts of Chinese scholars, this material has been translated into modern languages and included in the 1974 issue of Cultural Heritage and the Chinese Astronomy Anthology. In the Five Stars of Astrology, the major points and astrology of the five stars in the order of wood, gold, fire, earth, and water are recorded.

In 2149, the "Nine Stars in a Row" will occur

According to the calculation of astronomers, from 1 AD to 3000 AD, the seven stars will occur only 39 times, once every 77 years on average. But this does not mean that the interval between each two is exactly 77 years, but hundreds of years to 30-40 years. If the moon is included in this seven-star pearl streak, it can already be regarded as an "eight-star pearl streak".

Waiting for December 6, 2149, another extremely rare "nine stars in a row" will occur. According to NASA's predictions, that time the Cape will be particularly small, the probability of reaching a few thousand years, but unfortunately by then, we may be difficult to see.