I remembered something!

I remembered something!

Moo (guest) 03 Dec 2010 02:19

I remember asking about the "Jupiter Effect" sometime back, although I lost track of that thread. Anyway, regardless of that, I wanted to point out that it's a good example of hysteria about a 'full' planetary alignment being said to bring doom and destruction… and nothing happened.

I don't think it's mentioned anywhere on the Planetary Alignment page that we recently (80's?) had a 'full' planetary alignment, with the only change being a very slight increase in, If I recall, tidal activity. So minor people question if it was due to the alignment or not.

Anywho, correct me if I'm wrong that around 1983 or so that we had a near full or full planetary alignment, and Nothing Happened. Either way, I know it was a 'major' alignment, and nothing significant happened at all.

Re: I remembered something!

bikenbeer2000 03 Dec 2010 03:45

There's never an exact planetary alignment. The planets occasionally appear grouped together as seen from the Earth or the Sun, but to have them spanning an arc of less than 25º, as seen from the Earth, is rare.
The 1982 alignment spanned 95º as seen from the Sun. There is a Wikipedia article on the subject.
Here is a NASA article about planetary alignments in general and pointing out that they don't have the slightest effect on us.
A calculation shows that the increase in tidal height for an exact alignment would be 1/25th of a millimetre - about the width of a human hair.