Stunning photo shows every single planet in the solar system at the same time during rare alignment that won’t take place again until 2040

By EMILY JANE DAVIES

Published: 14:58 GMT, 26 February 2025 | Updated: 15:27 GMT, 26 February 2025

A stunning photo has showed every single planet in the solar system at the same time during a rare alignment that won’t happen again until 2040.

Taken from a field in Somerset, the groundbreaking photo could be the first ever to capture all the planets.

Josh Dury, 27, captured the spectacle of the solar system’s planets aligning from the Somerset’s Mendips Hills on Saturday.

The unusual celestial event is known as a ‘planetary parade’, with Mars, Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune aligning in the night sky.

Josh said: ‘I managed to capture a panorama image of the seven planets, AKA – the planetary parade.

‘It is made of nine images, revealing Saturn, Mercury and Neptune. However, they were very tricky to spot. 

‘I used multiple image analysis and astronomy apps to confirm their location.

A stunning photo has showed every single planet in the solar system at the same time during a rare alignment that won’t happen again until 2040

Astro photographer Josh Dury captured the spectacle of the solar system’s planets aligning from the Somerset’s Mendips Hills on Saturday

Josh Dury said: ‘These three planets are not easy to see at all’

The unusual celestial event is known as a ‘planetary parade’, with Mars , Jupiter , Mercury , Venus , Saturn , Uranus, and Neptune aligning in the night sky

‘As this was taken with a wide-angle lens, the nine images stitched to a panorama and a HDR blend of one of the frames to reveal Saturn, Neptune and Mercury. 

‘These three planets are not easy to see at all.’

This is the last time such an alignment will be as visible from the UK until 2040.

The last planetary alignment was 1982 but at the time cameras didn’t have the ability to capture all of them.

One expert said they were not aware of any pictures showing all the planets in the same photo.

He added that until 2006 Pluto would be considered a planet but not be possible to capture in this way.

That means it’s possible that previous examples would be labelled as ‘almost all the planets’.

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Stunning photo shows every single planet in the solar system at the same time during rare alignment that won’t take place again until 2040

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