THIS MONTH’S PLANETS
Easter brings a feast of planets in the evening sky
Venus will be strikingly bright in the sky through March and into April, and there will be so much going on around it. Venus is the second-closest planet to the Sun and the closest planet in the Solar System to Earth. Venus is often referred to as ‘Earth’s twin’, but although Venus is roughly the same size as Earth, that’s where the similarities end. Whereas Earth is a lush green world with a breathable atmosphere, liquid water on its surface and countless species of life, Venus is a hellish world with a thick, curdled atmosphere of poisonous carbon dioxide, acid droplets in its clouds and pressures so crushing on its surface that nothing could live there. This month Venus will be visible as a metallic spark of light embedded in the marmalade-hued twilight so bright that it will draw your eyes away from everything else around it.