The Alignment of Planets

In ancient times heavenly alignments foretold doom. Nowadays they set the schedule for space exploration.

"Beware the Ides of March," the crone intoned to the Roman dictator in 44 B.C. But Caesar, secure in his divinity and power, ignored her and shortly thereafter was sent from this Earth by some of his closest "friends." The position of heavenly objects played a role in the assassination because, by most accounts, it was an astrologer who foretold his demise. Emboldened by her prediction, Caesar's assassins turned it into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

"There was a similar case about 140 years after Caesar met his end," says Florian Himmler, a researcher in ancient history at the University of Regensburg in Bavaria, Germany. "On September 18, 96 A.D., the Roman emperor Titus Flavius Domitianus was also sent packing by assassins -- some were his closest friends and courtiers. His assassins chose the date and hour of his departure based upon the position of the planets … including Mars, which was positioned to make his 'divine protection' weakest."

Centuries ago monitoring the stars and planets was a popular way to plan daily events. Some say it still is! But the scientific method has shown that astrology holds little, if any, predictive power. As a result the belief in astrology is now far less universal than it was in Titus' day.

Gaius Julius Caesar was one of the most powerful men of his time. He was assassinated at a time based on the location of the planets and stars.

Nevertheless there are certain endeavours that are absolutely dependent upon the positions of the planets. In fact, some of our civilisations most advanced organisations, like NASA and other space agencies around the world, sometimes do nothing without first consulting the stars!

In this case, however, it's not for luck. NASA's mission planners carefully check the heavens to assure that their targets -- usually planets, comets or asteroids -- are in the right place to make journeys there as short and inexpensive as possible.