On March 10th 1982, a catastrophe was predicted. Written six years earlier, ‘The Jupiter Effect’ predicted the alignment of all nine planets (Yes, Pluto was still a planet then!) on the same side of the sun would trigger devastating natural disasters through an amplification of gravitational forces. The book was an instant best seller! However the predicted catastrophes, thankfully, did not occur. 

This phenomenal alignment of more than three celestial bodies is called a syzygy, from the Ancient Greek suzugos, but it often just describes any interesting configuration of the planets. A similar event occurred eighty-eight years earlier on March 21st 1894, when Mercury, Venus, and Saturn aligned. But for all nine planets to span little more than 98 degrees was unprecedented. In fact, the four largest planets in our solar system (Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus) spanned an arc little more than 73 degrees. 

You might be disappointed to find that the planets weren’t exactly in a straight line, so how long do we have to wait until that happens? Well, a syzygy is a rather loose term, but despite the orbital planes of all the planets being slightly different, if we want them to be in one degree of each other we’ll have to wait another whopping 13.4 trillion years! However if you’re not too bothered about perfect alignment and don’t mind Pluto not being included, you need only last until May 6th 2492. 

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