Venus, Mars and Jupiter swing into view

In a rare "planetary conjunction" Venus, Jupiter and Mars can be seen clustered together in the sky this week.

The planets line up, from our vantage point on Earth, due to the timing of their orbits around the Sun.

The rare grouping, best seen before sunrise, has been visible for days and will continue until at least the end of the week.

The next time the planets cluster this close together will be in January 2021.

This short animation illustrates how the three planets (not drawn to scale) can swing into close alignment.