878K views · 10K reactions | Planets usually move across our night...

109K views · 3.3K reactions | * Mercury’s retrograde motion * This...

We created this animation to visualize the captivating retrograde motion of Saturn — a cosmic illusion that has puzzled skywatchers for millennia. In 2025, Saturn begins its retrograde on July 13 and continues this apparent backward journey through the stars until November 15. But what exactly is retrograde motion? It’s not that Saturn actually reverses its orbit — instead, it’s an optical illusion that occurs when Earth, on its faster inner orbit, overtakes the slower-moving Saturn. As we pass

Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, undergoes an apparent retrograde motion as seen from Earth. But what does that mean? Retrograde motion is an optical illusion that occurs when a planet appears to move backward in the sky due to differences in orbital speeds. As Earth, moving faster in its inner orbit, overtakes Jupiter, the gas giant seems to temporarily reverse direction before continuing its normal prograde motion. Jupiter’s next retrograde motion will take place from November