On the evening of Thursday, the five brightest planets, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars and Saturn, can be seen together above the sky. From a distance, they almost lined in a row.

The alignment of five stars is when the five planets appear on the same side of the sky simultaneously. According to Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, when Venus, Mercury, and Mars set westward with twilight, Jupiter and Saturn just came out from the east, which is not a planetary alignment in the strict sense. 

The sun and moon are not the only solar system objects visible to the naked eye from earth. There are five other planets which are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, but they're not large enough, and they're far away from earth, so they only appear as bright spots.

Feast your eyes on these photos of the astronomical scene taken on August 19 in Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwest China.

(All images via VCG)

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