杏吧原创

Sigh. This again?

I鈥檓 seeing some buzz on social media that a planetary alignment on 28 May will cause a huge magnitude 9.8 earthquake in California.

Let me be clear: No, it won鈥檛. It can鈥檛. Worse, there鈥檚 not even an alignment on that date, at least not with the Earth. It鈥檚 all baloney.

This all stems from a video by someone who I believe is sincere but also profoundly wrong on essentially every level. It鈥檚 been picked up by , then spread around by people who haven鈥檛 been properly sceptical about it.

While this story hasn鈥檛 gone as viral as , it鈥檚 popular enough to debunk and hopefully can serve as a template for future such claims of doom and gloom that are actually smoke and mirrors.

First, . It鈥檚 from YouTuber Ditrianum Media. There鈥檚 a whole lot of nonsense in there that I won鈥檛 even bother with, including claims of spirits and (seriously) .

But then the narrator starts talking about alignments. Several things struck me while watching this.

First, there is simply no way an alignment of planets can cause an earthquake on Earth. It鈥檚 literally impossible. ; the maximum combined gravity of all the planets under ideal conditions is still far less than the gravitational influence of the moon on the Earth, and the moon at very best .

To put a number on it, because the moon is so close to us its gravitational pull is 50 times stronger than all the planets in the solar system combined. Remember too that the moon orbits the Earth in an ellipse, so it gets closer and farther from us every two weeks. The change in its gravity over that time is still more than all the planets combined, yet we don鈥檛 see catastrophic earthquakes twice a month, let alone ones aligning with the moon鈥檚 phases or physical location in its orbit.

So right away, we鈥檙e done.

I鈥檒l note that in the video the narrator talks about the planets being 鈥渆nergised鈥�, but doesn鈥檛 talk about what this truly means鈥� but it doesn鈥檛 matter, because it鈥檚 meaningless. It鈥檚 the usual sort of New Age word salad when they talk about 鈥渆nergy鈥�; they never define what that means (unlike in science ) so it means everything and nothing.

Also, if you watch the video, like for example at 7:27 and 8:11, these 鈥渁lignments鈥� don鈥檛 even align with the Earth! One is just two planets that appear to line up with the sun when the Earth is far off to the side, and in another they actually form a perpendicular line with the Earth. This is beyond silly; it doesn鈥檛 even make any sense.

At 8:40 he shows another 鈥渁lignment鈥� of two planets in such a way that if you drew a line between those planets it would apparently go between the Earth and moon鈥� but note that the moon鈥檚 distance to Earth isn鈥檛 shown to scale! The sizes of the planets and moon aren鈥檛 to scale either. Look at the width of the Earth鈥檚 orbit in the display; that鈥檚 300 million kilometres in real distance. The moon鈥檚 distance from Earth is about 380,000 km, or a bit more than 0.1 per cent of the size of Earth鈥檚 orbit.

To scale, the Earth and moon would be less than a pixel apart on his display! Now imagine how small the Earth itself would be on that scale.

That 鈥渁lignment鈥� doesn鈥檛 come anywhere near splitting the two. I鈥檓 not sure I鈥檇 take doomsday advice from someone who doesn鈥檛 seem to understand the software being used to predict it.

Again, I鈥檓 sure the narrator is sincere and honestly wants to help people and warn them of an event he thinks may be real. This puts him a comfortable step up over the various and repulsive scam artists you can find all over the web. But it doesn鈥檛 make him within a glancing blow of reality. Alignments of the planets have no effect on us at all. They , they don鈥檛 cause earthquakes (the doesn鈥檛 either), and about .

There is something very human about being scared of the unknown, and when we don鈥檛 understand something, it鈥檚 all too easy to supply any number of threatening bogeymen to stand in the nebulous shadows.

Understanding reality makes a lot of those bogeymen evaporate. This is absolutely one of those times.

And yes, understanding reality also introduces us to real things that are scary. But there鈥檚 the beauty of science: We can separate the real things that scare us from the things that shouldn鈥檛. If something isn鈥檛 real, you don鈥檛 have to worry about it. You can focus instead on the circumstances you can affect.

I think that many people who turn to pseudo (and outright anti-) science may do so because they feel that things are out of their control. That鈥檚 too bad, because 鈥� even though it may not seem like it at first 鈥� when you begin down the path of studying science, of becoming a critical thinker, these tools actually help you to be more in control of your life, not less.

Take control. Think critically. And that goes doubly so when you鈥檙e reading stuff on social media.

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