Stupid Americans
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RooRman
Well-Known Member
Geez some people are so stupid I call their right to live in any country on planet Earth into question. Put all these idiots on a rocket with a one-way ticket straight into the center of the Sun. 
evanescence
New Member
We're long overdue for a pandemic or meteor. The whole population is stupid. Maybe Apophis will be our end. Many ancient societies had calenders which ended in 2012. They believed that there have been four periods when people were nearly wiped out, such as the world wide flood. It is believed that we're coming to the end of the fourth period and the next period will begin after 2012. Who knows..
We're long overdue for a pandemic or meteor. The whole population is stupid. Maybe Apophis will be our end. Many ancient societies had calenders which ended in 2012. They believed that there have been four periods when people were nearly wiped out, such as the world wide flood. It is believed that we're coming to the end of the fourth period and the next period will begin after 2012. Who knows..
What have u been reading?
evanescence
New Member
I entered one of the dates incorrectly, but here's the background info on Apophis:
Upon its discovery in 2004, Apophis was briefly estimated to have a 2.7% chance of impacting the Earth in 2029. Additional measurements later showed there was no impact risk at that time from the 210-330 meter (690-1080 foot) diameter object, identified spectroscopically as an Sq type similar to LL chondritic meteorites. However, there will be a historically close approach to the Earth, estimated to be a 1 in 800 year event.
The Arecibo planetary radar telescope subsequently detected the asteroid at distances of 27-40 million km (17-25 million miles; 0.192-0.268 AU) in 2005 and 2006. Polarization ratios indicate Apophis appears to be smoother than most NEAs at 13-cm scales. Including the high precision radar measurements in a new orbit solution reduced the uncertainty in Apophis' predicted location in 2029 by 98%.
While trajectory knowledge was substantially corrected by the Arecibo data, a small chance of impact (less than 1 in 45,000) remained for April 13, 2036. With Apophis probably too close to the Sun to be measured by optical telescopes until 2011, and too distant for useful radar measurement until 2013, the underlying physics of Apophis' motion were considered to better understand the hazard.
The future for Apophis on Friday, April 13 of 2029 includes an approach to Earth no closer than 29,470 km (18,300 miles, or 5.6 Earth radii from the center, or 4.6 Earth-radii from the surface) over the mid-Atlantic, appearing to the naked eye as a moderately bright point of light moving rapidly across the sky. Depending on its mechanical nature, it could experience shape or spin-state alteration due to tidal forces caused by Earth's gravity field.
This is within the distance of Earth's geosynchronous satellites. However, because Apophis will pass interior to the positions of these satellites at closest approach, in a plane inclined at 40 degrees to the Earth's equator and passing outside the equatorial geosynchronous zone when crossing the equatorial plane, it does not threaten the satellites in that heavily populated region.
Using criteria developed in this research, new measurements possible in 2013 (if not 2011) will likely confirm that in 2036 Apophis will quietly pass more than 49 million km (30.5 million miles; 0.32 AU) from Earth on Easter Sunday of that year (April 13).
As far as ancient calenders are concerned, I don't believe that it's possible for any of these methods to truly predict the end of the world, I just find it interesting.
Mayan Calender
Apocalypse 2012? Some say ancient records foretell end of the world
By CHLOE JOHNSON
Staff Writer
Citizen.com - Laconia NH, Dover NH, Rochester NH, Portsmouth NH, Sanford ME
Article Date: Sunday, January 13, 2008
Could the end of the world be just four years away?
A subculture has formed around the possibility, saying several prophecies predict some sort of apocalypse in or around 2012. It has been discussed online, analyzed in several new books and covered in the media.
The date of doomsday, based on the Mayan calendar, has been set as Dec. 12, 2012. If the calendar began on Aug. 11, 3114 B.C., as many researchers contend, then its "long cycle" would end on that day.
The ancient Mayan civilization thrived between roughly 1800 BC and 1450 AD in Central and South America where the ruins remain of the cities they built, including monumental pyramids. They are recognized for their knowledge of astronomy and precise calendars.
The Mayans had different calendars, which were used in combination. The typical annual calendar was 260 days, synchronized with a 365-day calendar. Another calendar known as the Long Count was developed to mark longer periods of time, running for the equivalent of 5,125 years.
The Mayan calendar isn't in widespread use outside of Guatemala, though others are interested in revitalizing it, said Keith Prufer, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of New Mexico.
He said the end of the calendar's long cycle does not imply an apocalypse, but rather an anniversary similar to the millennium, though for a period of more than 5,000 years.
"It's not the end of the world," he said.
That hasn't stopped people from making both ominous and positive connections between the restart of the Mayan calendar and other phenomena predicted to happen around the same time.
For instance, the winter solstice is on Dec. 21, and in the year 2012, a solar maximum also is expected to occur. At maximum, the Sun can have many sunspots and many more large flares and solar storms, said Karen Masters, a postdoctoral researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
These events release charged particles from the surface of the Sun, which travel out into space. Those that hit the Earth can cause disruption to power grids, damage satellites and other electronics, she said.
"So solar maximum can be inconvenient – but I don't think it's going to end the world," she said. "The date matching the Mayan 'end of the world' prediction is just a coincidence – after all, lots of things are going to happen in 2012."
There is an 11-year cycle between the current solar minimum and the solar maximum NASA predicts will come in 2011 or 2012.
Some people are also anticipating a reversal of the magnetic poles soon. But there are at least hundreds of thousands of years between reversals, and scientists are not sure when it will happen again.
However, signs of a reversal have been observed for several years, including the magnetic field weakening, NASA has reported. If the trend continues, the magnetic field could collapse then reverse.
The magnetic field protects the planet from some cosmic radiation, which has the potential to knock out power grids and scramble communications systems.
The gradual process of a reversal would alter the direction compasses point, but most modern navigation equipment does not rely on the poles. However, some animal migration patterns might.
Other debatable 2012 prophecies include:
q The nuclear World War III predicted by Nostradamus, a physician in 1500s France noted for his future predictions
q A global peak in energy production, which would disrupt industrialized civilization as outlined in the Olduvai theory
q Technological creation of smarter-than-human intelligence, making computers the source of invention in a theory known as the Singularity
Interest in the 2012 date has spread from the New Age movement to the mainstream, according to Michael Barkun, a political science professor at Syracuse University who has written books on millennial and apocalyptic topics.
The date has captured the attention of people just as the millennium or Y2K did, but the year 2000 came and went without disorder, he said.
The fascination, he said, could be the "desire to believe time and history have some sort of order and plan, and events are not random."
As such, he said, the date is not chosen at random, but for some reason.
"Those who advocate it don't advocate it on some kind of notion of blind faith," he said.
The belief that the world is going to end could have negative consequences if many people begin to hold it and make life changes based on it, he said.
It's difficult to determine how many people believe, but there don't appear to be any organized groups built around the belief that the world will end in 2012, he said.
Upon its discovery in 2004, Apophis was briefly estimated to have a 2.7% chance of impacting the Earth in 2029. Additional measurements later showed there was no impact risk at that time from the 210-330 meter (690-1080 foot) diameter object, identified spectroscopically as an Sq type similar to LL chondritic meteorites. However, there will be a historically close approach to the Earth, estimated to be a 1 in 800 year event.
The Arecibo planetary radar telescope subsequently detected the asteroid at distances of 27-40 million km (17-25 million miles; 0.192-0.268 AU) in 2005 and 2006. Polarization ratios indicate Apophis appears to be smoother than most NEAs at 13-cm scales. Including the high precision radar measurements in a new orbit solution reduced the uncertainty in Apophis' predicted location in 2029 by 98%.
While trajectory knowledge was substantially corrected by the Arecibo data, a small chance of impact (less than 1 in 45,000) remained for April 13, 2036. With Apophis probably too close to the Sun to be measured by optical telescopes until 2011, and too distant for useful radar measurement until 2013, the underlying physics of Apophis' motion were considered to better understand the hazard.
The future for Apophis on Friday, April 13 of 2029 includes an approach to Earth no closer than 29,470 km (18,300 miles, or 5.6 Earth radii from the center, or 4.6 Earth-radii from the surface) over the mid-Atlantic, appearing to the naked eye as a moderately bright point of light moving rapidly across the sky. Depending on its mechanical nature, it could experience shape or spin-state alteration due to tidal forces caused by Earth's gravity field.
This is within the distance of Earth's geosynchronous satellites. However, because Apophis will pass interior to the positions of these satellites at closest approach, in a plane inclined at 40 degrees to the Earth's equator and passing outside the equatorial geosynchronous zone when crossing the equatorial plane, it does not threaten the satellites in that heavily populated region.
Using criteria developed in this research, new measurements possible in 2013 (if not 2011) will likely confirm that in 2036 Apophis will quietly pass more than 49 million km (30.5 million miles; 0.32 AU) from Earth on Easter Sunday of that year (April 13).
As far as ancient calenders are concerned, I don't believe that it's possible for any of these methods to truly predict the end of the world, I just find it interesting.
Mayan Calender
Apocalypse 2012? Some say ancient records foretell end of the world
By CHLOE JOHNSON
Staff Writer
Citizen.com - Laconia NH, Dover NH, Rochester NH, Portsmouth NH, Sanford ME
Article Date: Sunday, January 13, 2008
Could the end of the world be just four years away?
A subculture has formed around the possibility, saying several prophecies predict some sort of apocalypse in or around 2012. It has been discussed online, analyzed in several new books and covered in the media.
The date of doomsday, based on the Mayan calendar, has been set as Dec. 12, 2012. If the calendar began on Aug. 11, 3114 B.C., as many researchers contend, then its "long cycle" would end on that day.
The ancient Mayan civilization thrived between roughly 1800 BC and 1450 AD in Central and South America where the ruins remain of the cities they built, including monumental pyramids. They are recognized for their knowledge of astronomy and precise calendars.
The Mayans had different calendars, which were used in combination. The typical annual calendar was 260 days, synchronized with a 365-day calendar. Another calendar known as the Long Count was developed to mark longer periods of time, running for the equivalent of 5,125 years.
The Mayan calendar isn't in widespread use outside of Guatemala, though others are interested in revitalizing it, said Keith Prufer, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of New Mexico.
He said the end of the calendar's long cycle does not imply an apocalypse, but rather an anniversary similar to the millennium, though for a period of more than 5,000 years.
"It's not the end of the world," he said.
That hasn't stopped people from making both ominous and positive connections between the restart of the Mayan calendar and other phenomena predicted to happen around the same time.
For instance, the winter solstice is on Dec. 21, and in the year 2012, a solar maximum also is expected to occur. At maximum, the Sun can have many sunspots and many more large flares and solar storms, said Karen Masters, a postdoctoral researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
These events release charged particles from the surface of the Sun, which travel out into space. Those that hit the Earth can cause disruption to power grids, damage satellites and other electronics, she said.
"So solar maximum can be inconvenient – but I don't think it's going to end the world," she said. "The date matching the Mayan 'end of the world' prediction is just a coincidence – after all, lots of things are going to happen in 2012."
There is an 11-year cycle between the current solar minimum and the solar maximum NASA predicts will come in 2011 or 2012.
Some people are also anticipating a reversal of the magnetic poles soon. But there are at least hundreds of thousands of years between reversals, and scientists are not sure when it will happen again.
However, signs of a reversal have been observed for several years, including the magnetic field weakening, NASA has reported. If the trend continues, the magnetic field could collapse then reverse.
The magnetic field protects the planet from some cosmic radiation, which has the potential to knock out power grids and scramble communications systems.
The gradual process of a reversal would alter the direction compasses point, but most modern navigation equipment does not rely on the poles. However, some animal migration patterns might.
Other debatable 2012 prophecies include:
q The nuclear World War III predicted by Nostradamus, a physician in 1500s France noted for his future predictions
q A global peak in energy production, which would disrupt industrialized civilization as outlined in the Olduvai theory
q Technological creation of smarter-than-human intelligence, making computers the source of invention in a theory known as the Singularity
Interest in the 2012 date has spread from the New Age movement to the mainstream, according to Michael Barkun, a political science professor at Syracuse University who has written books on millennial and apocalyptic topics.
The date has captured the attention of people just as the millennium or Y2K did, but the year 2000 came and went without disorder, he said.
The fascination, he said, could be the "desire to believe time and history have some sort of order and plan, and events are not random."
As such, he said, the date is not chosen at random, but for some reason.
"Those who advocate it don't advocate it on some kind of notion of blind faith," he said.
The belief that the world is going to end could have negative consequences if many people begin to hold it and make life changes based on it, he said.
It's difficult to determine how many people believe, but there don't appear to be any organized groups built around the belief that the world will end in 2012, he said.
mistergreen60
New Member
The History Channel was playing a nuch of shows about this a couple weeks ago. How the Mayan Calendar correlates with the predictions of Nostradamus, etc. I don't really believe it, but it is interesting to watch or read about. 
"This is the shit I love" The stuff the Government don't want any of us to beleave in. They want you to say,
" it aint so - I don't beleave it - Thats a lie."
Stupid Americans Assholes
by Dan Eden for ViewZone [See Dan Eden's Confidential Message]
What makes 2012 significant is that it coincides with the alignment of the center of the Milky Way galaxy, our sun, earth, and the large planets. If it was not for this fact I would say that 2012 was just another Y2K hoax. But the astronomy makes it believeable.
It looks like this gravitational cosmic tsunami could cause the sun to scorch the earth. That means that the only immediate survivors would be people in the underground cities, caves, and submarines. However, even these people may not survive too long because such an event ( gravitational surges ) might bring on earth quakes and volcanic activity, flooding, and the such. These events might collapse underground cities and caves. Huge tidal floods might flood subways on the eastern seaboard.
However, if just a few did manage to survive. They would not be able to come out of their underground dwellings for some time, because the earth's protective magnetic shield may be gone.
If the upper atmosphere and the earth's atmosphere was able to repair itself say in even a short period of time of one year, the survivors would face a barren world. All surface vegetation and animal life will have been destroyed. The surface of earth might perhaps look like a barren planet. The only possible source of food for those few survivors might be the ocean. Plant life and sea life might survive this event to some small degree. However, there is one problem...more than likely all the plankton will die. They live at the surface of the water and will be destroyed by the radiation.
Plankton is the basic building block of life for many living organisms in the ocean. Plankton is the biggest generator of oxygen on the planet. With plankton gone and the forest gone, what is going to provide and create oxygen for the planet?
It doesn't look good for the few that survive 2012. It may very well be the end of the world. Unless, a greater power comes to rescue us. But are we worth it? Man is a miserable creature that kills and destroys himself and other living things.
Click on both of the links read what this guy has to say, some of it I beleave and some of it I don't, but what ever happens in 2012 it sure in the fuck aint going to be good for any body and our Government wants you to be 1 of those Stupid Americans Assholes
Doomsday in 2012?: Viewzone
" it aint so - I don't beleave it - Thats a lie."
Stupid Americans Assholes
by Dan Eden for ViewZone [See Dan Eden's Confidential Message]
What makes 2012 significant is that it coincides with the alignment of the center of the Milky Way galaxy, our sun, earth, and the large planets. If it was not for this fact I would say that 2012 was just another Y2K hoax. But the astronomy makes it believeable.
It looks like this gravitational cosmic tsunami could cause the sun to scorch the earth. That means that the only immediate survivors would be people in the underground cities, caves, and submarines. However, even these people may not survive too long because such an event ( gravitational surges ) might bring on earth quakes and volcanic activity, flooding, and the such. These events might collapse underground cities and caves. Huge tidal floods might flood subways on the eastern seaboard.
However, if just a few did manage to survive. They would not be able to come out of their underground dwellings for some time, because the earth's protective magnetic shield may be gone.
If the upper atmosphere and the earth's atmosphere was able to repair itself say in even a short period of time of one year, the survivors would face a barren world. All surface vegetation and animal life will have been destroyed. The surface of earth might perhaps look like a barren planet. The only possible source of food for those few survivors might be the ocean. Plant life and sea life might survive this event to some small degree. However, there is one problem...more than likely all the plankton will die. They live at the surface of the water and will be destroyed by the radiation.
Plankton is the basic building block of life for many living organisms in the ocean. Plankton is the biggest generator of oxygen on the planet. With plankton gone and the forest gone, what is going to provide and create oxygen for the planet?
It doesn't look good for the few that survive 2012. It may very well be the end of the world. Unless, a greater power comes to rescue us. But are we worth it? Man is a miserable creature that kills and destroys himself and other living things.
Click on both of the links read what this guy has to say, some of it I beleave and some of it I don't, but what ever happens in 2012 it sure in the fuck aint going to be good for any body and our Government wants you to be 1 of those Stupid Americans Assholes
Doomsday in 2012?: Viewzone
evanescence
New Member
Sounds hysterical, but then again, humans have always been obsessed with our own demise, and with violence and negativity.
And it should be said that the whole world has been greatly dumbed down, not just Americans.
And it should be said that the whole world has been greatly dumbed down, not just Americans.
You are right its not just the Americans but I didn't want to start a fight, you know that negativity shit.
I am not obsessed with anything but Growing Cannabis, 
but then my eyes are not closed to anything, I will be 1 of the last 1's here smoking Cannabis and telling the Government 2 fuck off, where will u be? 
Peace to all.
- Thread starter
- #11
Just to let you all know, the story of the alignments fails to tell you that every rock in the galaxy could line up and you would have no noticeable gravitational effect. There would be a drop in several forms of radiation for a minute or two, but no gravity waves, sorry.
See, the thing is, mass causes gravity to show. It's why you float in space, you are encompassed in gravity, because you have mass, but not enough mass for gravity to show.
When all of these objects align (They won't even align on the same plane) the mass of these objects will not change, therefore gravity will not show a change one way or the other. The sun and earth and moon and asteroids will not "pull" on each other any more then they do in their normal orbits.
You and I cannot even fathom the amount of energy it would take to displace even the smallest star like our sun. I mean to move it's center of mass one millimeter, would take another star of 1/2 our suns mass at least, to come within a light year or so of the suns orbit in the galaxy. No "Wave" could ever produce that kind of force short of a collision of 2 galaxies.
This guy is thinking in 2d, in space, 3d is just the beginning.
There is one language that everyone can understand though, MATH.
See, the thing is, mass causes gravity to show. It's why you float in space, you are encompassed in gravity, because you have mass, but not enough mass for gravity to show.
When all of these objects align (They won't even align on the same plane) the mass of these objects will not change, therefore gravity will not show a change one way or the other. The sun and earth and moon and asteroids will not "pull" on each other any more then they do in their normal orbits.
You and I cannot even fathom the amount of energy it would take to displace even the smallest star like our sun. I mean to move it's center of mass one millimeter, would take another star of 1/2 our suns mass at least, to come within a light year or so of the suns orbit in the galaxy. No "Wave" could ever produce that kind of force short of a collision of 2 galaxies.
This guy is thinking in 2d, in space, 3d is just the beginning.
There is one language that everyone can understand though, MATH.
RooRman
Well-Known Member
We're long overdue for a pandemic or meteor. The whole population is stupid. Maybe Apophis will be our end. Many ancient societies had calenders which ended in 2012. They believed that there have been four periods when people were nearly wiped out, such as the world wide flood. It is believed that we're coming to the end of the fourth period and the next period will begin after 2012. Who knows..
I am a scholar of these 2012 predictions as well. The Myan calander, a system based on precise mathematic calculations, ends on December 23, 2012. In the 12th century St. Malachy predicted the entire sucession of popes until "judgement day", he theorized we would see one more pope after Jhon Paul the Second and that the Antichrist would succeed this final pope, thus bringing about the end of the world. This seems to correspond quite closely with our current timeline. Not to mention the vast amount of murder, war, rape, famine, enviormental destruction and general chaos that is ever growing in our world today. The clock seems to be ticking ever closer to our demise. Are we in fact two minutes away from midnight?
However, many seers and noble people throughout the ages have predicted the end of the world in their lifetimes, only never to see it come to fruition. How much stock are we to put into these predictions? We cannot live in fear, but we can try to learn from our mistakes and recognize the foreboding path we are headed down, all the while trying desperately to avoid a catastrophic outcome.
"We are facing a dangerous time ahead. If we do not stop now and change some of these wrong doings, then we are all going to suffer. Either we will destroy ourselves or nature will take over. Rain... cold... lightening destructive, great thunder destructive, great wind destructive. These things will warn us that we are not following the law of the Great Spirits."-Neurosis, Cleanse
Some people look for the truth in life and some don't but everybody is looking for something...
- Thread starter
- #14
They may get it too with all the new layoffs that Macy's is fixing to have... 
- Thread starter
- #16
LoL... 
evanescence
New Member
I found this article on alignment:
Can the sun and planets line up across the solar system and cause disaster here on Earth?
For centuries disaster and calamity have been foretold whenever the planets of our solar system align. In the last few decades these ideas have found their way into print in books (making their authors good money) through predictions about the grave consequences of such an event. The book The Jupiter Effect predicted that California would be hit by major earthquakes set off by an 1982 alignment. Almost two decades later 5/5/2000: Ice, The Ultimate Disaster said that an alignment in May of 2000 would unleash increased solar activity, starting a chain of events that would cause the Earth's crust to slide and poles to shift. Many of these theories suggest that the tidal forces from these grand alignments can cause earthquakes, floods and disasters of all sorts. What does science tell us about these predictions? Can we associate past alignments with catastrophes? Should we expect disasters from future alignments?
First, let's define the term alignment. An alignment of planets and the sun, as seen from Earth, is simply a time when many of the planets in the solar system are together in a rough line on the other side of the sun from Earth. This would be visible as a conjunction of the planets in the sky, except that since the conjunction includes the sun, and the sun washes all other light sources out of the daytime sky, it renders the conjunction impossible to observe. Most disaster scenarios argue that the tidal forces unleashed by an increase in gravity in one direction will cause major problems on our planet. Some disaster theories even have gone so far as to suggest that the Earth might be torn in half.
Gravity is the force that pulls all objects toward one another. The amount of gravity an object exerts is proportional to the mass of an object. That's why a large object, like the Earth, pulls you toward it. With a slightly smaller object, such as the moon, there is less gravity because the moon is only a fraction of the mass of the Earth. Even small objects, such as you and the computer you are sitting in front of, have gravitational pull attracting you toward each other, but because your mass and the computer mass are so small the amount of gravity is negligible.
Compared to other forces gravity is one of the weakest in the universe, but what it does not have in strength it makes up for in tenacity. Gravity is effective over the distance of millions of miles between the Sun and its planets as well as the millions of light years between the stars in a galaxy and the billions of light years between one galaxy and another. While gravity can act at great distances, it does lose a lot of its strength. Every time you double the distance between yourself and another object, the force of gravity acting on you from that object drops by one quarter. If you put ten times the distance between you and the other object, the strength drops to one hundredth its original value (The strength falls by the square of the increase in distance).
Tidal forces are caused by the gravity of one large object acting on another. One example would be the moon's gravity pulling on Earth. Because Earth is so big and gravity's strength drops so rapidly with distance, the strength of the moon's pull on the side of Earth facing it is significantly more than the moon's pull on the far side of the Earth. This difference acts on the Earth to try and tear it in two. Fortunately our planet is strong enough to resist this pull. However, any liquid material on the surface of the Earth is drawn toward the moon by these tidal forces. That is the reason why our oceans have low and high tides.
Under the right conditions, tidal forces can become quite strong.. The 19th century French astronomer Édouard Roche calculated that if a moon gets too close in its orbit around its planet it will be torn apart by this force. Roche estimated this distance to be about 2 1/2 times the size of the planet's radius. This measurement had become known as the Roche Limit.
The rings around the planet Saturn are thought to be the remains of one or more moons that came within Saturn's Roche Limit and were shattered into the small rocks that now compose the rings. In 1992 the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 passed within the Roche Limit of the planet Jupiter and was torn into at least 21 separate pieces. Two years later these pieces plunged into Jupiter's atmosphere in a dramatic collision that was observed by Earth's telescopes and was broadcast around the world.
Could the Earth come to the same fate as Saturn's moon or comet Shoemaker-Levy 9? Could an extreme planetary alignment bring us within some interplanetary Roche Limit? Physics says, "No."
The fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 after it was torn apart by tidal forces. Does a similar fate await Earth? Credit: H.A. Weaver, T. E. Smith (Space Telescope Science Institute), and NASA
While the gravity exerted by the planets Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus is large, they are very far away. Thus the amount of gravity and tidal forces they exert on Earth are only a tiny fraction of the forces our much closer moon exerts even though the moon is much smaller. Astronomer Philip Plait (of the Bad Astronomy Page) has calculated the gravity and tidal forces for the planets at their closest approach to Earth and compared them to the same forces from the moon. According to Plait's calculations even the largest of the planets, Jupiter, exerts only one hundredth the force on our planet as the moon and only 0.000006 percent of the tidal force. Venus, our nearest planetary neighbor, has a gravity that affects us at a tiny 0.006 percent that of the moon with tidal force of only 0.00005 percent that of the moon.
Could the combination of all the planetary forces plus the sun and moon bring on disaster? It seems unlikely. The gravitational forces of all the planets together add up to less than 1.8 percent of the force of the moon (Even this 1.8 percent value is high since all the planets never get in perfect alignment and never pull in exactly the same direction). The moon, because its orbital path is not perfectly circular, varies its own gravitational force on Earth as much as 25% every two weeks with no obvious catastrophic effect on our planet. Scientists have tried to find a connection between the tides of the moon and earthquakes, but so far no definitive conclusions have been reached.
Perhaps the best proof that planetary alignments do not cause disasters can be found by simply looking at history. Neither the 1982 alignment nor the 2000 alignment caused any problems on our planet, though they did sell a lot of books.
So do we have to worry that an alignment of the planets will cause some sort of disaster on Earth? No, we don't. Planetary alignments remain a beautiful and interesting, but safe, curiosity in the sky.
Can the sun and planets line up across the solar system and cause disaster here on Earth?
For centuries disaster and calamity have been foretold whenever the planets of our solar system align. In the last few decades these ideas have found their way into print in books (making their authors good money) through predictions about the grave consequences of such an event. The book The Jupiter Effect predicted that California would be hit by major earthquakes set off by an 1982 alignment. Almost two decades later 5/5/2000: Ice, The Ultimate Disaster said that an alignment in May of 2000 would unleash increased solar activity, starting a chain of events that would cause the Earth's crust to slide and poles to shift. Many of these theories suggest that the tidal forces from these grand alignments can cause earthquakes, floods and disasters of all sorts. What does science tell us about these predictions? Can we associate past alignments with catastrophes? Should we expect disasters from future alignments?
First, let's define the term alignment. An alignment of planets and the sun, as seen from Earth, is simply a time when many of the planets in the solar system are together in a rough line on the other side of the sun from Earth. This would be visible as a conjunction of the planets in the sky, except that since the conjunction includes the sun, and the sun washes all other light sources out of the daytime sky, it renders the conjunction impossible to observe. Most disaster scenarios argue that the tidal forces unleashed by an increase in gravity in one direction will cause major problems on our planet. Some disaster theories even have gone so far as to suggest that the Earth might be torn in half.
Gravity is the force that pulls all objects toward one another. The amount of gravity an object exerts is proportional to the mass of an object. That's why a large object, like the Earth, pulls you toward it. With a slightly smaller object, such as the moon, there is less gravity because the moon is only a fraction of the mass of the Earth. Even small objects, such as you and the computer you are sitting in front of, have gravitational pull attracting you toward each other, but because your mass and the computer mass are so small the amount of gravity is negligible.
Compared to other forces gravity is one of the weakest in the universe, but what it does not have in strength it makes up for in tenacity. Gravity is effective over the distance of millions of miles between the Sun and its planets as well as the millions of light years between the stars in a galaxy and the billions of light years between one galaxy and another. While gravity can act at great distances, it does lose a lot of its strength. Every time you double the distance between yourself and another object, the force of gravity acting on you from that object drops by one quarter. If you put ten times the distance between you and the other object, the strength drops to one hundredth its original value (The strength falls by the square of the increase in distance).
Tidal forces are caused by the gravity of one large object acting on another. One example would be the moon's gravity pulling on Earth. Because Earth is so big and gravity's strength drops so rapidly with distance, the strength of the moon's pull on the side of Earth facing it is significantly more than the moon's pull on the far side of the Earth. This difference acts on the Earth to try and tear it in two. Fortunately our planet is strong enough to resist this pull. However, any liquid material on the surface of the Earth is drawn toward the moon by these tidal forces. That is the reason why our oceans have low and high tides.
Under the right conditions, tidal forces can become quite strong.. The 19th century French astronomer Édouard Roche calculated that if a moon gets too close in its orbit around its planet it will be torn apart by this force. Roche estimated this distance to be about 2 1/2 times the size of the planet's radius. This measurement had become known as the Roche Limit.
The rings around the planet Saturn are thought to be the remains of one or more moons that came within Saturn's Roche Limit and were shattered into the small rocks that now compose the rings. In 1992 the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 passed within the Roche Limit of the planet Jupiter and was torn into at least 21 separate pieces. Two years later these pieces plunged into Jupiter's atmosphere in a dramatic collision that was observed by Earth's telescopes and was broadcast around the world.
Could the Earth come to the same fate as Saturn's moon or comet Shoemaker-Levy 9? Could an extreme planetary alignment bring us within some interplanetary Roche Limit? Physics says, "No."
The fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 after it was torn apart by tidal forces. Does a similar fate await Earth? Credit: H.A. Weaver, T. E. Smith (Space Telescope Science Institute), and NASA
While the gravity exerted by the planets Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus is large, they are very far away. Thus the amount of gravity and tidal forces they exert on Earth are only a tiny fraction of the forces our much closer moon exerts even though the moon is much smaller. Astronomer Philip Plait (of the Bad Astronomy Page) has calculated the gravity and tidal forces for the planets at their closest approach to Earth and compared them to the same forces from the moon. According to Plait's calculations even the largest of the planets, Jupiter, exerts only one hundredth the force on our planet as the moon and only 0.000006 percent of the tidal force. Venus, our nearest planetary neighbor, has a gravity that affects us at a tiny 0.006 percent that of the moon with tidal force of only 0.00005 percent that of the moon.
Could the combination of all the planetary forces plus the sun and moon bring on disaster? It seems unlikely. The gravitational forces of all the planets together add up to less than 1.8 percent of the force of the moon (Even this 1.8 percent value is high since all the planets never get in perfect alignment and never pull in exactly the same direction). The moon, because its orbital path is not perfectly circular, varies its own gravitational force on Earth as much as 25% every two weeks with no obvious catastrophic effect on our planet. Scientists have tried to find a connection between the tides of the moon and earthquakes, but so far no definitive conclusions have been reached.
Perhaps the best proof that planetary alignments do not cause disasters can be found by simply looking at history. Neither the 1982 alignment nor the 2000 alignment caused any problems on our planet, though they did sell a lot of books.
So do we have to worry that an alignment of the planets will cause some sort of disaster on Earth? No, we don't. Planetary alignments remain a beautiful and interesting, but safe, curiosity in the sky.
2012 will be a new year and what will it bring. No 1 knows for sure...
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