Timeline for Would the inner planets of our Solar System line up?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
6 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Mar 21, 2017 at 15:47 | comment | added | BradC | @TheBlackCat I'm not disagreeing with your facts, just disagreeing with you on how important they would be to OP's story. Even to a careful observer, the inner planets will appear to be going back and forth in (nearly) a straight line, with some measurable but small deviations. Mercury's inclination will seem lessened by being closest to the sun. For comparison, see this pic of Jupiter's moons. In that case the deviation is because of Jupiter's tilt in relation to us, but they are clearly in a (non-perfect) line. | |
| Mar 21, 2017 at 15:38 | comment | added | TheBlackCat | @BradC: I don't think 6 degrees is "very minor". And all the differences would be much larger than the size of the planets themselves. | |
| Mar 21, 2017 at 15:34 | comment | added | BradC | Nothing in your answer is factually false, per se, but I think your conclusion ("no, this wouldn't occur") is unsupported, as a practical matter, for an observer that simply "needs to locate the position of the earth at different times in its orbit". Yes, there are very minor inclination differences, but yes, the planets will appear to be nearly in a straight line. | |
| Mar 21, 2017 at 13:57 | comment | added | catsteevens | Besides, Pluto is not really considered to be a planet these days. | |
| Mar 21, 2017 at 7:45 | comment | added | user | While your final sentence is certainly true (Pluto really is the odd one out), you are going to be hard pressed to view Pluto by naked eye from 2.5 AU from the Sun looking in any direction, let alone toward the Sun. | |
| Mar 21, 2017 at 2:09 | history | answered | TheBlackCat | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
