Planets align every how many years

Instead, they swing about on different orbits in three dimensional space. For this reason, they will never be perfectly aligned. It's like waiting for a swarm of flies circling your head to all line up. It is not going to happen.

When astronomers use words like "planetary alignment", they don't mean a literal lining up. They just mean that some of the planets are in the same general region of the sky. And this type of "alignment" almost never happens to all the planets, but instead happens to two or three planets at one time. Furthermore, "planetary alignment" depends on your viewpoint.

If three planets are in the same region of sky from the earth's point of view, they are not necessarily in the same region of sky form the sun's point of view. Alignment is therefore an artifact of a viewpoint and not something fundamental about the planets themselves. The book Bad Astronomy by Philip C. Plait states,. However, the planets' orbits don't all exist perfectly in the same plane.

Sad day for Galileo. Now, in , we get to see this spectacle in the coming weeks. If you look each night you'll notice the two planets getting closer together each evening. The "Great Conjunction" as it is being called, will finally occur on the night of the winter solstice. That's right! Coincidentally, at the start of the longest night of the year we will see two planets appear separated by a tenth of a degree 0.

That's about one-fifth the apparent diameter of the Moon! When looking through a telescope or even binoculars you'll likely be able to see both Saturn and Jupiter in the same frame already a rarity as well as their Moons! Of course, while these two gas giants will "appear" close together, they will still be hundreds of millions of miles apart.

Jupiter is nearly million miles from Earth, and Saturn another million miles beyond that. Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system and will shine brightest. Saturn will have a golden hue to it. Either way, the Sun will become a red giant, shed much of its mass, engulf Mercury and Venus, and allow the other planets to drift into radically different orbits long before such a lineup takes place!

Finally, a real answer! Every other article out there says they'll "kindof" align in , which totally doesn't fit the definition of "align". I'm talking about how you define it, from "above", ignoring the offsets the planets have on the plane. Log in to Reply. Editor's Pick. What is the universe expanding into? Intermediate What do I need to do to become an astronomer? Beginner What's the difference between astronomy and astrology?

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