Can you tell me, have all the planets in our solar system moved into a straight line? I have thought of this and was really curious. If they have done this before, when?, and if not, why won't it happen?
2006-09-10 17:12:33 · 8 answers · asked by Fairy Princess 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Other - Science
You guys are wonderful!!!! Thank you so much for your help and honesty.
2006-09-10 17:45:52 · update #1
Why did you not post this on Astronomy and Science.
I assume you are asking whether the planets ever appear to us in a straight line - they can't actually move into a straight line in space, per se.
Most of the planets move in very much the same plane. That means that if you imagine their orbits as a disk, they all orbit on the same disk (or almost).
That means that anytime a number of planets are in the same part of the sky, they do indeed look like they are in a straight line, because being in a similar plane they follow the same path across the sky.
This is the same path that the sun follows across the sky called the Ecliptic. Most of the planets follow close to this path.
That path arches up into the sky for most of us, since the Earth is tilted on its axis.
It would be easier to visualise if you lived at the North Pole. At the Equinox (March 21 and Sept 21) the sun and the planets would all march around the horizon. only then would it be easy to visualise that Earth and the planets move around the sun in almost the same plane.
2006-09-10 17:48:57 · answer #1 · answered by nick s 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The web site of the Griffith Observatory (in Los Angeles) notes that a very close alignment of the naked-eye planets took place on February 27th, 1953 B.C., in which the first five planets were together in a span of 4.3 degrees. No closer alignment has taken place since then: on September 8th of 2040, a fairly close alignment within a space of 9.3 degrees will be observed.
You can read about it here:
http://members.shaw.ca/quadibloc/science/cmeint.htm
2006-09-10 17:18:53 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
All planets have different orbits,so as the number of orbit from the sun increases,the length of orbit also increases,so different planets have to travel different length of orbits,due to which they can never come in a straight as they dont cover same distances.YES,only two can come,but not all.
2006-09-10 17:18:38 · answer #3 · answered by Sachin 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They all lined up May 5, 2000. You can read more at:
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/planets_align_020402-1.html
2006-09-10 17:21:40 · answer #4 · answered by David 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It only just happened in the past few years. It won't happen again for another 179 years.
2006-09-10 17:20:10 · answer #5 · answered by stephenaxlscott 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
o i don't know thing that u go HMMmm
2006-09-10 17:17:40 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
YES
2006-09-10 17:14:31 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
this should help.
2006-09-10 17:20:56 · answer #8 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋