Mon 22 May 00 20:33
Steve Quarrella
The sky is falling

Predictions of Disaster When Planets Align

ABCNEWS' Science Editor Michael Guillen says some doomsday predictors believed the next apocalypse was supposed to occur today because of the alignment of the visible planets in our solar system. (ABCNEWS.com)

N E W Y O R K, May 5 - It's a rare occurrence, but it's certainly not the end of the world. ABCNEWS' Science Editor Michael Guillen says some doomsday predictors believed the next apocalypse was supposed to occur today around 4 a.m. Eastern U.S. time.

That's when the visible planets in our solar system roughly lined up on the opposite side of the sun from Earth. A few people have predicted that this would lead to some kind of disaster, including super-high tides and devastating earthquakes. However, there's no scientific proof to back up these dire predictions.

Not Much Pull

Guillen says the planets are too far away from Earth to wreak the kind of havoc people fear they will. Their gravitational pull is simply not strong enough, given the distance, to cause volcanic eruptions or tidal waves.

"First of all I should say it's not farfetched for people to think that maybe when the planets line up the gravitational forces line up and puts some tug on the earth," says Guillen. "That's not unreasonable. But when you do the calculation, you find out if you line up all the gravitational tugs from all the five planets, it's less than one percent."

A Long Time Coming

Although the alignment is a historic occurrence, it's not something you will be able to see. Since the planets have aligned on the other side of the sun, the glare prevents us from seeing it. Guillen says these kinds of alignments usually happen about once every 57 years. The next one is expected on September 9, 2040. However, an event in which the planets are this perfectly aligned will not happen again until April 22, 2438.

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