Light travels at roughly 300,000 kilometres per second. At that speed, it still takes 250 years to cross 250 light-years of space. And that is precisely how far away Spica is — the brightest star in the constellation Virgo, visible as a brilliant blue-white point low in the southwestern sky on summer evenings. The light reaching your eye when you look at Spica tonight departed that star sometime around 1776 — the year thirteen American colonies declared independence from Britain and set in motion the events that would eventually produce the world's most influential democracy. In 2026, as the United States marks its 250th anniversary, that coincidence has taken on a kind of poetic weight.&nbsp;What Spica Actually Is&nbsp;Spica — formally designated Alpha Virginis — is not a single star. It is a binary system: two massive, blue-white stars locked in an extraordinarily tight mutual orbit, separated by only 0.12 astronomical units — about 12 percent of the average distance between the Earth and the Sun. They complete one orbit around each other every four days, so close that no telescope can resolve them as separate objects. The larger of the two is about 7.8 times the diameter of the Sun; the smaller is roughly 4 times as wide. Their surface temperatures reach around 22,000 degrees Celsius for the hotter component — compared to the Sun's 5,500 degrees. Together, the pair shines at over 12,100 times the luminosity of our Sun, making Spica the 16th brightest star in the entire night sky despite being a quarter of a millennium away.&nbsp;The Arc To Arcturus, Then Speed On To Spica&nbsp;Finding Spica without a telescope or star chart is easier than it sounds. Start by locating the Big Dipper — the familiar seven-star asterism in the northern sky. Follow the curve of its handle outward and you will quickly reach Arcturus, the brilliant orange-red star in the constellation Bootes. Keep following that same arc beyond Arcturus and you will arrive at Spica — a cooler blue-white point lower in the southwestern sky. Astronomers and star-gazers have long taught this route with a simple mnemonic: arc to Arcturus, speed on to Spica. At an apparent magnitude of 0.97, Spica is bright enough to see easily from most suburban locations, provided the sky is clear and you give your eyes a few minutes to adjust to the dark.&nbsp;A Second Star From 1776 — But Not Tonight&nbsp;Spica is not the only star sitting at roughly the 250-light-year mark. Bellatrix — the star at the left shoulder of the constellation Orion, the celestial hunter — is also located about 250 light-years from Earth, meaning its light carries an equally ancient timestamp. However, Orion is a winter constellation in the northern hemisphere and is lost in the glare of the Sun during summer months in 2026. For the July 4 celebrations, Spica is the star to look for. Bellatrix and Orion will return to the evening sky in late autumn.&nbsp;What 250 Years Of Light Travel Means&nbsp;The thought experiment at the heart of this story is worth sitting with for a moment. When the Continental Congress voted to approve the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, a pulse of light was leaving Spica at the speed of 300,000 kilometres per second. George Washington was 44 years old. The steam engine had not yet been invented. No one on Earth had any concept of electricity, antibiotics, flight, or nuclear power. That pulse of light has been crossing interstellar space ever since — through the Industrial Revolution, two World Wars, the Moon landing, and the invention of the internet — and it is arriving at Earth now, in 2026, just in time for the 250th anniversary of the nation it has been silently racing toward.&nbsp;Why Astronomers Love This Kind Of Story&nbsp;For astronomers, the connection between stellar distance and cosmic time is not a metaphor — it is physics. Every star you see in the night sky is showing you the past, not the present. The Sun's light takes about eight minutes to reach Earth; the nearest star beyond the Sun, Proxima Centauri, is 4.2 light-years away, meaning we see it as it was four years ago. Spica at 250 light-years shows us what was happening on the surface of that binary system when the quill was being put to parchment in Philadelphia. In a universe 13.8 billion years old, 250 years is a cosmic blink. But it is also the entire lifespan of the American democratic experiment — and on a clear summer night, you can see both of those 250-year journeys meet in the same moment, in the same beam of blue-white light.

Spica in Virgo is 250 light-years away, meaning its light left in 1776 — the year America was born. Here's how to find it and what it tells us about cosmic time.

Light travels at roughly 300,000 kilometres per second. At that speed, it still takes 250 years to cross 250 light-years of space. And that is precisely how far away Spica is — the brightest star in the constellation Virgo, visible as a brilliant blue-white point low in the southwestern sky on summer evenings. The light reaching your eye when you look at Spica tonight departed that star sometime around 1776 — the year thirteen American colonies declared independence from Britain and set in motion the events that would eventually produce the world's most influential democracy. In 2026, as the United States marks its 250th anniversary, that coincidence has taken on a kind of poetic weight. What Spica Actually Is Spica — formally designated Alpha Virginis — is not a single star. It is a binary system: two massive, blue-white stars locked in an extraordinarily tight mutual orbit, separated by only 0.12 astronomical units — about 12 percent of the average distance between the Earth and the Sun. They complete one orbit around each other every four days, so close that no telescope can resolve them as separate objects. The larger of the two is about 7.8 times the diameter of the Sun; the smaller is roughly 4 times as wide. Their surface temperatures reach around 22,000 degrees Celsius for the hotter component — compared to the Sun's 5,500 degrees. Together, the pair shines at over 12,100 times the luminosity of our Sun, making Spica the 16th brightest star in the entire night sky despite being a quarter of a millennium away. The Arc To Arcturus, Then Speed On To Spica Finding Spica without a telescope or star chart is easier than it sounds. Start by locating the Big Dipper — the familiar seven-star asterism in the northern sky. Follow the curve of its handle outward and you will quickly reach Arcturus, the brilliant orange-red star in the constellation Bootes. Keep following that same arc beyond Arcturus and you will arrive at Spica — a cooler blue-white point lower in the southwestern sky. Astronomers and star-gazers have long taught this route with a simple mnemonic: arc to Arcturus, speed on to Spica. At an apparent magnitude of 0.97, Spica is bright enough to see easily from most suburban locations, provided the sky is clear and you give your eyes a few minutes to adjust to the dark. A Second Star From 1776 — But Not Tonight Spica is not the only star sitting at roughly the 250-light-year mark. Bellatrix — the star at the left shoulder of the constellation Orion, the celestial hunter — is also located about 250 light-years from Earth, meaning its light carries an equally ancient timestamp. However, Orion is a winter constellation in the northern hemisphere and is lost in the glare of the Sun during summer months in 2026. For the July 4 celebrations, Spica is the star to look for. Bellatrix and Orion will return to the evening sky in late autumn. What 250 Years Of Light Travel Means The thought experiment at the heart of this story is worth sitting with for a moment. When the Continental Congress voted to approve the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, a pulse of light was leaving Spica at the speed of 300,000 kilometres per second. George Washington was 44 years old. The steam engine had not yet been invented. No one on Earth had any concept of electricity, antibiotics, flight, or nuclear power. That pulse of light has been crossing interstellar space ever since — through the Industrial Revolution, two World Wars, the Moon landing, and the invention of the internet — and it is arriving at Earth now, in 2026, just in time for the 250th anniversary of the nation it has been silently racing toward. Why Astronomers Love This Kind Of Story For astronomers, the connection between stellar distance and cosmic time is not a metaphor — it is physics. Every star you see in the night sky is showing you the past, not the present. The Sun's light takes about eight minutes to reach Earth; the nearest star beyond the Sun, Proxima Centauri, is 4.2 light-years away, meaning we see it as it was four years ago. Spica at 250 light-years shows us what was happening on the surface of that binary system when the quill was being put to parchment in Philadelphia. In a universe 13.8 billion years old, 250 years is a cosmic blink. But it is also the entire lifespan of the American democratic experiment — and on a clear summer night, you can see both of those 250-year journeys meet in the same moment, in the same beam of blue-white light.

On July 4, 2026, America turns 250 years old. To mark the occasion, astronomers are pointing people to a star visible with the naked eye whose light left its surface around the same year the Declaration of Independence was signed. That star is Spica — the brightest point of light in the constellation Virgo — and the photons hitting your eye tonight have been travelling through space for exactly as long as the United States has existed.

When you look at this star tonight, you are seeing light that left space in 1776

A planetary alignment will delight people across the globe on February 28. Six planets - Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Uranus, and Neptune - will come together in one line. You will be able to see at least six of them with the naked eye. Jupiter will be the brightest and is already shining in the night sky. Here is everything you need to know about the planetary parade of February.&nbsp;<h2>Why does planetary alignment happen?</h2>Planetary alignment is an occurrence where several planets become visible at the same time. They form something like a line, so you can spot all of them almost in the same region from your point of view. All the planets are part of the ecliptic, an imaginary line traced by the Sun. All the planets in the solar system are located in almost the same orbital plane since they were all born from one protoplanetary disk. This is why the planets appear in a line during planetary alignments.Also Read: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/moon-is-shrinking-1114-new-cracks-discovered-bad-news-for-nasa-1771583051297">Moon is shrinking as 1,114 new cracks are discovered. It is bad news for NASA's lunar bases</a><h2>Which planets will be visible and where to look?</h2>As mentioned above, six planets, barring Mars, will be part of this spectacle. Jupiter will be the brightest and easiest to locate. Locate the Orion constellation, and look towards the south. Jupiter appears as a bright star between two dimmer stars, which are Castor and Pollux in Gemini. Uranus is also visible high in the sky. It is located under the Pleiades star cluster. It might not be visible to the naked eye, and you will require binoculars or a telescope to see Uranus. Finding the rest of the four planets will be a task since they will be lower down in the west. If you can find a spot with a flat western horizon, Mercury, Venus and Saturn will be visible without any aids. Let the sun set altogether to try and find them to protect your eyes from the glare. They will be best seen from a place with least light pollution.Also Read: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/earth-radio-signal-every-22-minutes-cosmic-oxymoron-1771576248446">Every 22 minutes, a strange object has been sending a signal to Earth for 38 years</a><h2>Don't look for the planets too early after sunset</h2>Neptune will only be visible through telescopes or binoculars. It will be very low down in the sky, just like Mercury, Venus and Saturn after sunset. For the same reason, you should not try to attempt to view these planets very soon. The planetary alignment will take place on February 28. Although, this would be the best day to see the planets, the visual will start appearing a few days earlier. Some of them have already been captured on cameras by astronomers across the globe.&nbsp; &nbsp;

Planetary alignment in February: Six planets will come into line and become visible at the same time in February. Here is where to locate the planets, which one will appear the brightest and the precautions you need to take.

A planetary alignment will delight people across the globe on February 28. Six planets - Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Uranus, and Neptune - will come together in one line. You will be able to see at least six of them with the naked eye. Jupiter will be the brightest and is already shining in the night sky. Here is everything you need to know about the planetary parade of February. Why does planetary alignment happen? Planetary alignment is an occurrence where several planets become visible at the same time. They form something like a line, so you can spot all of them almost in the same region from your point of view. All the planets are part of the ecliptic, an imaginary line traced by the Sun. All the planets in the solar system are located in almost the same orbital plane since they were all born from one protoplanetary disk. This is why the planets appear in a line during planetary alignments. Also Read: Moon is shrinking as 1,114 new cracks are discovered. It is bad news for NASA's lunar bases Which planets will be visible and where to look? As mentioned above, six planets, barring Mars, will be part of this spectacle. Jupiter will be the brightest and easiest to locate. Locate the Orion constellation, and look towards the south. Jupiter appears as a bright star between two dimmer stars, which are Castor and Pollux in Gemini. Uranus is also visible high in the sky. It is located under the Pleiades star cluster. It might not be visible to the naked eye, and you will require binoculars or a telescope to see Uranus. Finding the rest of the four planets will be a task since they will be lower down in the west. If you can find a spot with a flat western horizon, Mercury, Venus and Saturn will be visible without any aids. Let the sun set altogether to try and find them to protect your eyes from the glare. They will be best seen from a place with least light pollution. Also Read: Every 22 minutes, a strange object has been sending a signal to Earth for 38 years Don't look for the planets too early after sunset Neptune will only be visible through telescopes or binoculars. It will be very low down in the sky, just like Mercury, Venus and Saturn after sunset. For the same reason, you should not try to attempt to view these planets very soon. The planetary alignment will take place on February 28. Although, this would be the best day to see the planets, the visual will start appearing a few days earlier. Some of them have already been captured on cameras by astronomers across the globe.

Planetary alignment in February: Six planets will come into line and become visible at the same time in February. Here is where to locate the planets, which one will appear the brightest and the precautions you need to take.

February planetary parade: Visible planets, watch guide and precautions

The November night sky will be full of stargazing opportunities, with meteor showers, planets and the moon putting up spectacular shows. Here are some celestial wonders you can see this month.

7 celestial events for stargazers in November - Meteor showers, planets and more

Do you know where are the best places in India for stargazing? Explore 7 stunning spots in India with clear skies, little pollution, and beautiful views of the Milky Way and more. 

'Under a billion stars': 7 best places in India for stargazing