Article Posted on : - Sep 16, 2009

Image Credit: NASA

NEW DELHI (PTI): Sky gazers will get to see planet Uranus setting opposite the Sun on Thursday.

The blue-green planet will be at opposition or 180 degrees from the Sun. The planet rises above the horizon just while the Sun is setting, Director of Space Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators C B Devgun said.

At opposition, Uranus will rise opposite the Sun at sunset, climb highest overhead at midnight and set opposite the sun at sunrise. An opposition with the Sun, however, can happen only for planets whose orbits lie beyond that of Earth.

Opposition defines the position of a celestial object when it is on the opposite side of the Sun when viewed from the Earth as reference.

In India, the exact time of Uranus' opposition is 15:11 pm. It will be 19 Astronomical Units (AU) from the Earth and 36 degrees above the horizon. During Opposition, the planet will be visible the whole night.

When Uranus will be at or near opposition, Earth will be closest to it and the planet will shine brightly in the sky. It will also appear bigger, R C Kapoor of Indian Institute of Astrophysics said.

Uranus, which will be in constellation Pisces, will be glowing at 5.7 magnitudes. Astro enthusiasts can see Sun, Earth and Uranus make a straight line in the sky, he said.

Uranus is a gas giant which can be seen using a telescope in normal days. But to see the planet Thursday night, you just need to look towards the eastern horizon with a pair of binoculars.

The third largest planet in the Solar System is made up mostly of hydrogen and helium with a small percentage of methane. Uranus gets its colour from methane.