'Once-in-a-lifetime' planetary parade photo captures 10 celestial bodies in a single shot

Seven planets, along with the sun and the moon, align across the sky above Earth's Mendip Hills in the U.K. An annotated version of the image can be found further down in the article. (Image credit: Josh Dury)

A rare grouping of 10 celestial bodies is captured in a stunning new photo taken during last weekend’s great planetary parade.

Astrophotographer Josh Dury took the photo you see above on Feb. 28, when seven planets — Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — lined up on the same side of the sun. Dury photographed this rare cosmic event from the Mendip Hills, Somerset, U.K. The next time this s type of cosmic alignment should appear is the year 2040.