``There is no reason to believe or suspect that planetary positions can have any physical effect on Earth,'' said Rajesh Kochhar of Indian Institute of Astrophysics here.

He added that the event -- when the planets come close to form almost a straight line -- had been ``misread'' and claimed that it would occur only on May 5, 2000 and not on the coming Saturday as announced by some astrologers. ``The event is a chance occurrence and it will only have a projection effect,'' Kochhar maintained.

He informed that such an event had occurred at least 14 times in the past 1,000 years, the last one being in 1962.

The Astrological Magazine has predicted natural calamities on May 8 based on certain planetary combinations. Officials at the Nehru Planetarium, however, saythe alignment of planets is not possible in the coming days as there is a marked angular separation between them.