Can anyone please tell what is going to happen when all the planets are lined up in a row? My understanding is that this is going to happen around April 2000. I mean if anything bad is going to happen I want to get this big screen T.V. I've been wanting before all hell breaks loose.
Methane Man - Nothing bad is going to happen. The planets have been in such an arrangement before, and will be again. In fact, in the year 1943 B.C., the planets were all visible in one small section of sky, a much smaller area than they will inhabit this time. It is just like being able to see both the moon and the sun in the afternoon sky, only on a larger scale. A mere astronomical coincidence, nothing more. FyreStar P.S. The date will be May 5th, and they won't really be in a straight line, just mostly visible from earth. [This message has been edited by FyreStar (edited November 16, 1999).]
Another way to look at the so called planetary alignment. Split the solar system into 2 hemispheres. One hemisphere will contain all the known planets, but not in a line. ------------------ Steady State
A friend told me about his lining up of the planets theory that he caught on one television program or another. I have to say, it's all an attention-grabber, and poses absolutely no threat. As was said above, the planets AREN'T going to be perfectly aligned. And even if they were, it wouldn't pose a threat. I looked into this problem in two ways. The first was with my Starry Night astronomy program, setting the date to May 5th 2000. This program allows you to look at, and manipulate, the sky at any point in history: past, present, or future. (My astronomy prof was the beta-tester.) I pinpointed all the planets and let me tell you, they aren't all that well lined up. The other thing I tested was the basic additional forces exerted on the Earth (using Newtonian laws). The other planets are all too far away to exert any sufficient tidal forces on the Earth. Nothing's going to happen.
