The LASCO space telescopes captured a conjunction of Venus and Mars with the Sun.

A rare simultaneous approach of Venus and Mars to the Sun, which will not be repeated until the second half of the 23rd century, was recorded from space by the LASCO coronagraphs on the SOHO spacecraft. The planets, which had been moving toward each other for several months, aligned with the Sun last night at a distance of about 1 degree and are now beginning to move apart. Having passed closer to the Sun, Venus is moving to the left of the solar disk and, in just two months, in March, will become visible in Earth's sky as an evening star, setting below the horizon at sunset immediately after the Sun. Currently, it is impossible to see it because, like Mars, it is completely immersed in the Sun's rays. Mars, moving to the right of the Sun, will, in contrast, become a morning star in the spring, appearing in the sky at dawn.

The fact that the planets passed below the Sun, rather than aligned with it, is due to the tilt of their orbits relative to Earth's. For Mars, it is about 2 degrees, and for Venus, about 3.5 degrees. In some, rather rare, cases, Venus can, however, pass directly across the solar disk. The last time this happened was in 2012, and the next one will not occur until December 11, 2117. Mars is an outer planet, which cannot project onto the solar disk under any circumstances. At the time of the conjunction, both planets were on the opposite side of the Sun from Earth: Venus at a distance of 256 million km, and Mars at a distance of 360 million km.