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When the sun sets on Friday, stargazers are about to have their best chance at seeing Mercury shine in the night sky in 2025.
Visible to the naked eye, Mercury should be seen in the western sky at twilight, according to the Old Farmer's Almanac . The first planet in the solar system is expected to be at its greatest distance from the sun, 18 degrees east of the sun and at a magnitude of –0.4.
A celestial object's stellar magnitude describes how bright that object looks in the night sky, with the brightest stars being seen at a magnitude of 1, EarthSky reported. Objects with a negative magnitude appear much brighter without the need for a telescope, according to NASA .
While Mercury will be farther from the sunset's glare, it will fade over the coming days until around March 12, when its magnitude increases as it approaches Venus, its nearest planetary neighbor and the brightest planet in the night sky. Space.com wrote.
By mid-month, Mercury will vanish further and will pass between the sun and Earth on March 23 in what astronomers call an inferior conjunction, according to EarthSky .
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