It's a steady bright light in the western sky, sometimes appearing to move or emit colours. It's been shining brilliantly for a few days, prompting the inevitable question: Is it a ... UFO?
"No, it's not," said Sara Poirier, an Ontario Science Centre astronomer. "It's Venus, passing between the sun and the Earth, and we see it at an angle where only a part of it is lit up. But at its greatest brilliance."
Yesterday, five days late for Valentine's, Venus was at its brightest.
The planet orbits the sun and comes this close to Earth about five times every eight years. "It's ridiculously bright right now and unlike anything else in the sky. That's why people think it's a UFO," said Poirier.
She and other astronomers at the centre have been inundated with emails and calls for some weeks now asking about "the brilliant object in the west.
"Some (people) are hesitant before they say UFO but believe it's (too) large and brilliant to be anything else," she said, adding it's so bright it can be seen before sunset.
"We see less of the surface, but it appears brightest because it's the closest (to Earth)," Poirier said.
Venus, which is the brightest celestial body after the sun and moon, is most often mistaken for a UFO.
But Venus doesn't move or emit colours, Poirier said. "It's the atmosphere playing all kinds of tricks on light and it causes Venus to look as if it's shifted or changed colour."
One reason why Venus is so much more noticeable now is because of its angle, said Denis Grey, of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada's Toronto branch. "It's relatively high up. Also ... it gets dark earlier and people are noticing it more."
In the weeks ahead, Venus will come even closer to Earth but will show less of its lighted hemisphere as it prepares to pass between Earth and the sun on March 27.