Moon, Mars, Regulus to align in rare celestial event soon
What's the story
The night sky will witness a unique celestial event on June 29, when the Moon, Mars, and the star Regulus will come together. This conjunction follows last week's close encounter between Mars and the blue-white star Regulus. The Moon will be just 4.7 days old at that time and will be heading toward its first quarter (half-moon) phase with over 22% of its surface illuminated.
Celestial distances
How far are these 3 objects from us?
The light from our nearest celestial neighbor, the Moon, takes just 1.3 seconds to reach us. However, for Mars, the fourth planet in our solar system, it takes nearly 16 minutes (15 minutes and 57 seconds) for its light to reach Earth. In stark contrast, light from Regulus takes a whopping 79 years to reach us.
Scenario
Regulus will appear as it was 8 decades ago
In simple terms, this means we see the Moon as it was just a second ago, Mars as it was nearly 16 minutes ago, and Regulus as it was almost eight decades ago. The conjunction will be clearly visible from the southern hemisphere as well, where it will appear in the north-northwest.