There are many legends about Earth’s doomsday, including one that tells when all 8 planets align perfectly in a straight line toward the Sun, it will be the Earth’s doomsday. So, has this special cosmic phenomenon ever occurred or will it happen, and what impact could it have on Earth? Let’s explore the answers based on current scientific research about the universe.
The alignment of the planets
According to the legend, the alignment of the planets occurs when all 8 planets in the Solar System line up along a straight line (we don’t consider Pluto as a planet, and we exclude the Sun since it is at the center of the Solar System). They should align in the order of their positions in the Solar System. When this happens, if observed from Earth looking toward the Sun, we would witness a phenomenon like a solar eclipse involving Venus and Mercury. Conversely, if we look in the opposite direction, we would observe a lunar eclipse involving Mars, Earth, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, and Saturn in that order.
For this phenomenon to occur, all 8 planets in the Solar System must be at precise coordinates at the same time. We know that each planet has its own orbital path, which makes the likelihood of this alignment extremely small. However, it’s not impossible, theoretically.
When do the planets align?
This is a challenging question to answer accurately, but Dr. Donald Luttermoser from East Tennessee State University, USA, has calculated that all the planets, from Venus to Neptune (excluding Pluto, which is no longer considered a planet), will align perfectly every 8.6×10^46 years, a number much larger than the universe’s estimated age of 13.7 billion years.
In other words, it could happen, but it’s incredibly unlikely due to the planets having individual orbits and angular velocities. Imagine two planets with the same angular velocity—they would never meet in a straight line connecting them to the Sun.
Therefore, for this alignment to occur, only two out of the 8 planets in our Solar System need to have the same angular velocity. However, even though it’s theoretically possible, the chances are astronomically low. It might happen, but it would take 8.6×10^46 years to occur. In comparison, our Solar System is only 4.6×10^9 years old, and the Sun is estimated to exist for another 10^10 years.
In essence, this alignment could occur, but by the time it does, the Sun will no longer exist. And when the Sun dies, its gravitational pull will weaken, no longer having the force to keep the planets in orbit.
So, it’s safe to say that such an alignment of planets will never happen in the entire history of our Solar System.
The planets in the Solar System have previously “come close together.”
While they can’t align precisely along a straight line, the planets in the Solar System have come relatively close together in the sky (you can think of it as a planetary cluster or group of planets in the sky).
In 1983, an event occurred where all the planets (including Pluto at the time) were within a 96-degree arc in the sky—not in a straight line as many people mistakenly believe. All the planets were on the same side of the Sun and within the same quadrant. This kind of alignment typically occurs approximately every 200 years.
The event of the planets aligning, or more accurately, the planetary conjunction, most recently occurred in 2000. Despite some predictions that Earth would be doomed, nothing significant happened.
What happens when the planets align?
When planets align or come close to forming a straight line in the sky, some people believe that the combined gravitational effect of all these planets could cause earthquakes and tsunamis on Earth.
While the Sun and the Moon have strong enough gravitational pulls to create tides on Earth, this is due to the Sun being extremely massive and the Moon being relatively close to us. Gravitational force decreases with the square of the distance, and the planets are far too distant from Earth to exert any significant gravitational effect.
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For instance, the largest planet, Jupiter, in terms of mass in our Solar System only exerts about 1% of the gravitational force the Moon does. Therefore, the combined gravitational effect of all the planets is minuscule in comparison to the Moon’s influence. Moreover, the planets’ orbits don’t align in such a way that would result in a significant gravitational pull on Earth.
It’s also argued that the alignment of the planets might affect the Sun. It’s important to note that the Sun makes up 99.86% of the total mass in the Solar System, making all other objects incredibly tiny in comparison. Therefore, any interaction between these objects and the Sun has a negligible effect on the Sun’s natural processes.
In conclusion, while the alignment of the planets in a straight line is theoretically possible, the probability of it happening is astronomically low, and it would take longer than the expected lifespan of our Solar System. Even when such an alignment occurs, it would not pose any significant threat to Earth due to the limited gravitational influence of the planets