What will happen to the Earth when the planets align in May, 2000?

Hello,

You asked, what will happen to the Earth when the planets align in May,
2000?

The answer is, nothing significant. Every once in a while, the planets
just happen to lie approximately along a straight line; this is just a
random celestial event that is bound to happen from time to time, every
few hundred years or so. The last such grouping of all 5 visible
planets as well as the sun and moon occurred in 1962. After next May's
alignment, we won't see another for 600 years! Unfortunately, however,
we won't actually see this one, either. Only two of the planets will be
visible at the time (Venus in the morning, Mars in the evening), because
the rest are above the horizon during daylight hours.

If you want to see some images of how the planets will look, both in the
sky and from a perspective above the solar system, check out the
following web page from Griffith Observatory:
http://www.griffithobs.org/SkyAlignments_illus.html

Thanks for the question!

cheers,

--
Jason Harris
Grad Student
UCO/Lick Observatory

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