The Earth's atmosphere often muffles views from ground-based telescopes when observing space. Now, a research c Tagging is how all of our articles, products and events are related to each other. You can explore tags individually by clicking on them, or by searching for them on our website.
To learn more, click here. Upcoming Webinars. NOV 15, NOV 16, NOV 17, These rare events often happen many years apart. In December , Jupiter and Saturn appeared so close to each other that they resembled a giant star in the sky in what's known as the "Great Conjunction," Inverse reports. The last time this happened was years ago. Mercury, the smallest planet in our solar system, is difficult to spot with the naked eye because of its size and proximity to the sun. It is often only visible at specific times of the year, after sunset or in early twilight, reports Inverse.
The word "spring" here refers to the fact that the water seems to leap up the shore with the extra strong tides every two weeks, and not that they occur only in the Spring season. Let's put some numbers behind these claims. Using Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation and the known masses and distances of the sun, the moon, and the planets, we can calculate the gravitational force that a kg person feels from each astronomical body when he is located on earth's surface at the equator:.
Note that because the planets orbit the sun along different paths at different speeds, the distance between them is constantly changing. Therefore, in the interest of seeing what the effect of a planetary alignment might be, I have calculated the gravitational force from each planet when it is the closest to the earth.
As this table shows, even if all the planets lined up at the points in their orbits where they are closest to the earth, the absolute highest gravitational force that all the planets combined could exert on a kg person on earth's surface is 0.
This value is 53 times weaker than the average gravitational force of the moon. Furthermore, as the moon moves closer to and farther from the earth in its normal monthly orbit, the moon's gravitational force on a kg person on earth fluctuates by 0. In other words, the gravitational effect of the moon coming closer to and farther from the earth every month is far stronger than that of any planetary alignment, no matter how contrived.
If the gravity of planetary alignments caused problems on earth, then the normal monthly fluctuation of the moon's gravity would cause problems that would be 15 times worse, or more. As should be obvious, there is not a giant earthquake, a catastrophe, or a spate of crimes every month when the moon reaches its closest point to earth.
Therefore, the fluctuations in gravitational force on us due to the alignment of any planets, which is tens to thousands times weaker than that of the moon, has no effect on earth. The closest that the eight planets will come to being aligned Pluto is now considered a dwarf planet will occur on May 6, Nov 9, , am EST.
Nov 8, , pm EST. Edit Story. Feb 19, , pm EST. I inspire people to go stargazing, watch the Moon, enjoy the night sky.
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