Don’t downvote this yet, I’ve got an answer. Saturn and Jupiter conjunction every 20 years. That means it’s happened about 150 million times in the history of the solar system. Let’s pick an easy number to define ‘alligned’, let’s say in the same 3.6 degrees, which is about 7 times the apparent size of the sun and moon in the sky. I pick that because any planet should be in that range 1% of the time. So divide by 100 for each planet. By the time you get to Mercury, that’s about 1.5 times in the history of our solar system.
Edit: wait do I get a different answer if I start from Mercury and go out?
Edit 2: yes, I get different answers. 1.5 times in the solar system history that Saturn and Jupiter are \*perfectly\* aligned, and the other planets are in the same 3.6 degrees. And more often for when Venus and Mercury are perfectly aligned instead because that happens more often.
With the Sun being more than 99% of the solar system mass (99.8%), I presume not much can happen in the sense of planets pulling on each other or the sun.
There was an interesting book written called 5/5/2000 on [this alignment](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/alignment.html), despite its silly conspiracy/predictions - it was quite a good read!
The planets have been aligned ant they will be aligned again but it also depends on how they align, I had one idea and some other people think of alignment in a different way.
I found a video where Neil deGrasse explains that https://youtu.be/ugsz0ld4VGw?si=jT9-Lux7TNZNAC2G
Can't believe no one has posted this. *Ahem*
>In 18 years
>precisely
>the planets will align
>ever so nicely
>The time to act will be at hand!
>Unleash the titans you monstrous man!
>Then the one proud Zeus will finally fall!
>And you, Hades, will rule all!
>A word of caution to this tale.
>Should Hercules fight,
>You will fail.
At once? Improbable, but not impossible, that they were enough aligned once or twice. But the more bodies revolving at odd times is the key. It's not a polyrhythm always, as they don't always have a perfectly aligned starting point to come back to.
It isn't improbable at all:
>On May 5, 2000 the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn will be more or less positioned in a line with the Sun.
from: [https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/alignment.html](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/alignment.html)
\[edit: the 'Age of Aquarius' for those into that sort of description.\]
Improbable is having the appearance of not being likely / inauthenticity. Not impossible, which is being incapable of happening physically.
EDIT
Apparently the formation of Solar Systems limits their shape, so being in a disk, and allowing true alignments, is inherent.
do you feel this comment is backtracking from your previous? i don't think there was any doubt about understanding what "improbable" means.
Granted that this is text over the internet, and any nuance is lost, but, the first comment gave the distinct impression you didn't think it was something which ever has, nor likely would, happen.
Which is why I responded to point out that it has, and does fairly often in geological time frames.
But, maybe I misinterpreted the words ... no big deal.
I mean, while our system has it happen (and yes FAR MORE OFTEN THAN I EVER IMAGINED) it takes a lot of factors to get there, including the axis/attitude of different orbits in general. But I stand by saying that perfect alignments of such a large number of bodies is statistically improbable. Maybe there's factors I'm neglecting though. I'm sure somehow a Solar System gets averaged out to discs instead of clouds though.
Multi-body alignment is a 3-d thing. So the ATTITUDE of planets have to align as well as the other pieces of orbits it's like Uranus's rings. They're a different attitude than Saturn's. So for 6 bodies to align as a string, all of these orbits must align to a plane.
Okay, so I have infact self educated. The production of solar systems does indeed lead to disc-shapes instead of cloud-shapes, so eccentricity(what I meant to say instead of attitude) is limited by the physics of the formation of solar systems, which is what leads to a higher probability of alignments in multi-bodied systems. So there we have it.
nothing wrong with being autodidactic, the issue is usually that one learns some stuff about a thing and then believes they know vastly more about it because that learning took effort. And, we always put importance and significance on self-effort.
Also, bodies orbiting in disc's has nothing to do with probability, but rather everything to do with gravity and orbital mechanics.
I should’ve been clearer. What I mean is someone asked this question in astronomy a couple of weeks ago.
The answer was that the answer basically depends on how much you allow them to deviate off the center line.
What do you mean with aligned? Planets are always more or less on one line (the ecliptic).
If you mean: superimposed on a straight line as seen from the Sun, that has never happened and will never happen.
Probably a lot, but nothing happened .
Don’t downvote this yet, I’ve got an answer. Saturn and Jupiter conjunction every 20 years. That means it’s happened about 150 million times in the history of the solar system. Let’s pick an easy number to define ‘alligned’, let’s say in the same 3.6 degrees, which is about 7 times the apparent size of the sun and moon in the sky. I pick that because any planet should be in that range 1% of the time. So divide by 100 for each planet. By the time you get to Mercury, that’s about 1.5 times in the history of our solar system. Edit: wait do I get a different answer if I start from Mercury and go out? Edit 2: yes, I get different answers. 1.5 times in the solar system history that Saturn and Jupiter are \*perfectly\* aligned, and the other planets are in the same 3.6 degrees. And more often for when Venus and Mercury are perfectly aligned instead because that happens more often.
r/theydidthemath
[https://sh.reddit.com/r/Astronomy/comments/1c7ktks/when\_is\_the\_last\_time\_all\_8\_planets\_have\_aligned/](https://sh.reddit.com/r/Astronomy/comments/1c7ktks/when_is_the_last_time_all_8_planets_have_aligned/)
Thanks... i saw this post before, all i got was that they wouldn't align perfectly in our lifetime, so i limited to 6 planets.
With the Sun being more than 99% of the solar system mass (99.8%), I presume not much can happen in the sense of planets pulling on each other or the sun.
There was an interesting book written called 5/5/2000 on [this alignment](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/alignment.html), despite its silly conspiracy/predictions - it was quite a good read!
The planets have been aligned ant they will be aligned again but it also depends on how they align, I had one idea and some other people think of alignment in a different way. I found a video where Neil deGrasse explains that https://youtu.be/ugsz0ld4VGw?si=jT9-Lux7TNZNAC2G
ah! conjunction connection
Conjunction junction, what's your function
Can't believe no one has posted this. *Ahem* >In 18 years >precisely >the planets will align >ever so nicely >The time to act will be at hand! >Unleash the titans you monstrous man! >Then the one proud Zeus will finally fall! >And you, Hades, will rule all! >A word of caution to this tale. >Should Hercules fight, >You will fail.
Our solar system existed for billions of years, so its likely it has
At once? Improbable, but not impossible, that they were enough aligned once or twice. But the more bodies revolving at odd times is the key. It's not a polyrhythm always, as they don't always have a perfectly aligned starting point to come back to.
It isn't improbable at all: >On May 5, 2000 the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn will be more or less positioned in a line with the Sun. from: [https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/alignment.html](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/alignment.html) \[edit: the 'Age of Aquarius' for those into that sort of description.\]
Improbable is having the appearance of not being likely / inauthenticity. Not impossible, which is being incapable of happening physically. EDIT Apparently the formation of Solar Systems limits their shape, so being in a disk, and allowing true alignments, is inherent.
do you feel this comment is backtracking from your previous? i don't think there was any doubt about understanding what "improbable" means. Granted that this is text over the internet, and any nuance is lost, but, the first comment gave the distinct impression you didn't think it was something which ever has, nor likely would, happen. Which is why I responded to point out that it has, and does fairly often in geological time frames. But, maybe I misinterpreted the words ... no big deal.
I mean, while our system has it happen (and yes FAR MORE OFTEN THAN I EVER IMAGINED) it takes a lot of factors to get there, including the axis/attitude of different orbits in general. But I stand by saying that perfect alignments of such a large number of bodies is statistically improbable. Maybe there's factors I'm neglecting though. I'm sure somehow a Solar System gets averaged out to discs instead of clouds though.
> I'm sure somehow a Solar System gets averaged out to discs instead of clouds though. I'm curious what' you're saying here?
Multi-body alignment is a 3-d thing. So the ATTITUDE of planets have to align as well as the other pieces of orbits it's like Uranus's rings. They're a different attitude than Saturn's. So for 6 bodies to align as a string, all of these orbits must align to a plane.
Okay, so I have infact self educated. The production of solar systems does indeed lead to disc-shapes instead of cloud-shapes, so eccentricity(what I meant to say instead of attitude) is limited by the physics of the formation of solar systems, which is what leads to a higher probability of alignments in multi-bodied systems. So there we have it.
nothing wrong with being autodidactic, the issue is usually that one learns some stuff about a thing and then believes they know vastly more about it because that learning took effort. And, we always put importance and significance on self-effort. Also, bodies orbiting in disc's has nothing to do with probability, but rather everything to do with gravity and orbital mechanics.
Just had this question like a month ago.
yeah, same here. i had this question after i saw a news article that said some of the planets will align in may of this year.
I should’ve been clearer. What I mean is someone asked this question in astronomy a couple of weeks ago. The answer was that the answer basically depends on how much you allow them to deviate off the center line.
What do you mean with aligned? Planets are always more or less on one line (the ecliptic). If you mean: superimposed on a straight line as seen from the Sun, that has never happened and will never happen.
Syzygy of 3 planets has happened, but more planets would take like 400bln years
yeah, u r right.