Conjunction! How to see Venus and Mars side by side in the sky tonight

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On Feb. 22, Venus and Mars will look like a cosmic colon as they appear side by side in the predawn sky.

The planet Venus shining brightly over ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile at twilight.
Venus shines brightly above the European Southern Observatory's Paranal Observatory in Chile (Image credit: P. Horálek/ESO)

This Thursday (Feb. 22), Venus and Mars will appear side by side in the predawn sky, and if you rise early, you can spot this planetary dance with the naked eye or a pair of binoculars.

During the seemingly close encounter, called a planetary conjunction, Venus and Mars will come within about half a degree of each other. Venus, one of the brightest objects in Earth's sky, will easily outshine Mars. While Venus will shine at magnitude -3.9, Mars will reach just magnitude 1.3, according to In The Sky. (The brightest objects in the sky have the lowest numbers on this scale, with the sun shining at magnitude -27, according to NASA.)

Although the planets appear close together, they look that way only from our perspective on Earth, of course. On Feb. 22, Venus will be 136 million miles (219 million kilometers) from Earth, and Mars will be 208 million miles (335 million km) from our planet. In other words, the two seemingly side-by-side planets will actually be more than 100 million miles apart from each other.

Conjunctions are fascinating events, but they are not rare in our solar system. There will be three other planetary conjunctions in 2024: Jupiter and Uranus (April 20), Mars and Uranus (July 16), and Mars and Jupiter (Aug. 15).

Jamie Carter
Jamie Carter
Live Science contributor

Jamie Carter is a Cardiff, U.K.-based freelance science journalist and a regular contributor to Live Science. He is the author of A Stargazing Program For Beginners and co-author of The Eclipse Effect, and leads international stargazing and eclipse-chasing tours. His work appears regularly in Space.com, Forbes, New Scientist, BBC Sky at Night, Sky & Telescope, and other major science and astronomy publications. He is also the editor of WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com.