A chance alignment of four planets around the sun was captured Monday by the SOHO spacecraft, a joint European Space Agency/NASA probe that is currently studying the sun and its emissions. SOHOs latest image features the sun with the planets Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn.

Planetary alignments such as this one are relatively uncommon. However, imaging four planets in such close proximity to the sun is something truly rare. This is because from a terrestrial point of view, planets light would be drowned out by the brilliance of the sun. The SOHO spacecraft, however, is equipped to handle this.

With highly specialized instruments that can stare directly at the sun, SOHO filters out much of the suns glaring light, allowing for detailed images of stars and planets that appear around it.

SOHOs view of the sun (center) and four planets. Mercury lies 37 million miles (59.5 million kilometers) from the sun, and is the suns closest neighbor. Saturn, the furthest planet pictured, lies some 870 million miles (1.4 billion kilometers) away from the sun.

Every day, planets can be seen moving across the field of view of LASCO C3, one of the instruments on board SOHO. Using LASCO, astronomers can block the suns intense glare by aiming a circular disc in direct line with the sun. The resulting field of view is dark enough to allow LASCO to image gases and charged particles emanating from the sun, as well as stars and planets in a 15-degree field of view around the sun.