I Didn’t Know That . . .

Q: Is there really going to be a disaster caused by the planets being lined up next year?

A: There is no truth to this rumor, which is being widely spread on the Internet. On May 5, 2000, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will all be located more or less in the direction of the sun--although not in a straight line. But these planets are so far away from the Earth that they will produce no effect. The last big alignment scare was in 1982, when those planets, plus Uranus and Neptune, were located on one side of the sun for the first time in 176 years. Nothing happened then, astronomers say, and nothing will happen now. More information is available at www.earthsky.com.