Planetary Alignment

Every once in a while, a story comes out that a planetary alignment will wreak havoc on Earth and the end of the world as we know it will occur. The most recent example was posted by a friend of mine on Facebook. It basically tells us that a planetary alignment will cause a massive 9.8 earthquake in California on May the 28th. Here is a link for the story if you wish to read it. I admit that I didn't read it because I have one thought on stories like this: they basically come from the back end of a male cow.


These stories are bogus. They are a waste of electrons on the internet. People that don't know science are taken in by these articles because of the gloom and doom that they predict. I'm going to explain why these stories are false.


1. The Sun is the overwhelming largest mass in the Solar System, and by a large margin, contributes the largest component of the force of gravity on the Earth. All the other planets, moons, asteroids, comets, minor bodies, dust particles, alien lifeforms, nanobots, whatever, in our Solar System combined do not contribute much to the force of gravity felt on Earth. Remember, the force of gravity is related to the mass divided by the distance squared (higher the mass, higher the gravity; closer the mass, the higher the gravity as well). Remember, that the Sun contains over 99% of all the mass in the Solar System, and that there are only six objects in Solar System closer to Earth than the Sun (Mercury, Venus, the Moon, Mars, Phobos, and Deimos). They do not have enough mass combined to do anything to our planet. In fact, the only other mass that has an significant affect on Earth is the Moon, and all it does is make water slosh around (see the post on tides).


2. The planets themselves cannot align themselves in such a way that they all are pulling on Earth in the same direction, even if the gravity was strong enough. All the planets are inclined differently to the Sun's equator, and in turn, to the Earth's orbital plane. One planet might be above the Earth's orbital plane, while another below it. Note that it is possible that the planets might all be in the same orbital plane as the Earth as they orbit the Sun, but this is highly unlikely due to all the motions of the planets. But again, it is extremely unlikely that they all would happen to be in the same orbital plane as the Earth, and even then, look at the first point.


I am betting that if you read my blog, you know that these stories are blatantly wrong. However, if by some chance you believe them, just understand, planetary alignments will not hurt the Earth in anyway. I'd be more worried about the people living on the planet.