Crossing the galactic plane

Dingo69

I am interested in verifying the following claim:

The most interesting is that the sun will pass through the
galactic center (from earth's vantage point) on Dec 21, 2012, which is when
the Mayan calendar "ends" (and is also the winter solstice).

I'm having a discussion where my argument is that the world won't end in 2012 like many doom predictors claim. Can this claim even be accurately proven/disproven?

Also, if there any way to tell when our solar system will line up with the galactic plane? I have to imagine when dealing with such vast distances and taking measurements from the inside, it has to be difficult to pinpoint.

malawi_glenn

Sun will not pass through the center of Milky Way. Sun is orbiting around it.

D H

Even if the Mayan calendar ended on December 21, 2012, so what? Does your car stop running when your odometer hits 100,000 miles? No. Moreover, the Mayan calendar does not end on December 21, 2012.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoame...lendar#Summary
The crossing of the galactic plane is BS piled on top of BS. First, we do not know the shape of the galaxy well enough to even say something as precise as this. Second, how exactly does this purported crossing of the galactic plane spell the end of the Earth? It doesn't.

Dingo69

Clarification - when they said "the sun will pass through the
galactic center (from earth's vantage point)", they don't mean physically pass through it, but that the three points of the earth sun and galactic center will form a straight line with the sun at the center.

And I agree 100% with the absurdity of the claims. I'm just looking for as much evidence as possible to convince others of that fact.

Thanks!

russ_watters

Whether the sun, earth, and galactic center form a straight line on that date depends on how precise you want to be with calling it an "alignment". Here's a screenshot of Starry Night for that day. The sun, viewed from earth, is 6 degrees, 38 minutes away from being aligned with the galactic center. The actual closest alignment is on December 18th of every year (just 5 degrees, 41 minutes), with the alignment on that date changing very little from year to year. It oscillates 2.7 times per orbit, which is 225-230 million years. Given the length of that timescale, it would be impossible to measure a year-to-year change in our alignment to pinpoint an exact year (much less day) that we cross it. But I've found sites that say we are currently on an up-swing in our orbit, moving away from the galactic plane.

But as DH said, there is no need to go to such lengths to debunk this. My calendar ends every year and the world hasn't ended yet. The Mayan's just need to go to Staples and pick up next milenia's version of their calendar or get the Y2012 update for Windows to make sure it rolls over.

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DaveC426913

It most certainly can. Check back here on Dec 22, 2012.


OK, all seriousness aside. It can't be proven or disproven. What can be shown (to a reasonable person) is that all these supposed confluences of events are nonsense and therefore there is no reason to think the world will end on that day any more or less than any other.

Dingo69

Thanks for the insight folks. What is blatantly obvious to you and me (and other logically minded people), is often difficult to grasp for people who consider retirement planning to consist of buying lottery tickets. Having some real facts to reinforce my arguments helps dramatically.

Born2Lead

The only thing evident in these chaos is that people are making money by releasing books and I am sure as the date approaches, more are going to get panic like they did before Y2K and do wrong things. There was, though, a tv program on NOVA channel regarding the SUN crossing the center of the galaxy. There is a possibility, according to experts that the earth poles may switch and it could result in unexpected behaviour in lots of electronics. And the date is set to DEC 20012. So it's anybody's guess.

russ_watters

The earth is currently believed to be in a pole flip event. This happens occasionally and is little to worry about except that you'll need to relabel your compass - in a few thousand years. The worst effects that are possible come from the fact that the magnetic field is what deflects charged particles from solar flares and CMEs and as a result, the effects of these events (which already produce power outages and damage satellites) could be worse. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...54C0A9629C8B63

Marbaus

While there might not be any truth to the claim of 'the end of time', referencing the Mayans, there should be some evidence BEFORE you begin to claim such items as facts, as stated.

Now writing on the subject of the galactic plane: What evidence supports the effects of such a difference. The facts are that the world does go through these types of events and it does take some change in our solar enviorment to create such events. It seems that these changes, when passing through the plane, could be something we know little of and therefore cannot rule out an increased risk of such events.

Do not just blow it off. Research and understand by the science of the matter, not what you want to believe or hear. Use more observation and look beyond the majority opinion.

Seek truth and you cannot fail. I hope the fear mongers are wrong though I have not read supportive evidence to sugest a strong fact on either side of the arguemnt.

I am trying to get people to actually do the research and stop making assumptions. Its too great of a risk to slack off in this area.

The point is that one generation will be faced with an event that will threaten the world. Its likely that generation will be just as apathetic as we are today, unless we take changes to our solar enviorment seriously use fact as fact.

As far as I can tell we don't know very much about this galactic plane and most certianly not enough to begin to make statements of 'safe' or 'sorry'.

Keep researching there are answers, but there is only one truth.

russ_watters

The most important thing to take from this thread is that there is no science to "the matter". It's a basic crackpot hoax. That is why we blow it off.

If there were something here to research, research would be done.

Chronos

I'm hosting a Mayan calendar party on Dec 22, 2012. Disregard this announcement if the world ends on Dec 21, 2012. Also, if the earth's magnetic field does not reverse by then, I'm planning to sponsor a pole flipping contest.

schroder

I agree with statement entirely as far as the Mayan Myth is concerned. What I am interested in discussing is the crossing of the galactic plane within the context of astronomy. What I would like to know is how we can determine our present “plumb bob” distance above this imaginary plane and in what relative direction are we moving? I have done some researching on the www and it seems to me there is no real consensus on this as far as I can tell. Some related numbers I have come up with are:
Distance from our solar system to galactic center ~ 26,000 lyr.
Thickness of the galactic disk is anywhere from 1000 – 3000 lyr.
Tilt of the galactic equator to the ecliptic is 62.6 degrees.
Tilt of eatrh’s equator to the ecliptic is 23.5 degrees.
Angle between the projection of the ecliptic on the earth and the center of galaxy ~ 2 degrees. This angle seems to me to be the most important for this calculation but it also is one of the most unreliable because of the precession of the equinoxes and the other tilts mentioned above.
From this, I have made my own very crude calculation based on the tangent of 2 degrees as the angle between earth and galactic center and the baseline distance of 26,000 lyrs as being just tan 2 deg. multiplied by 26,000 = 907 lyrs as the height of the earth above the galactic plane. Before the “real” astronomers pounce on me, I admit this is a very crude approximation and I have no confidence in it at all. I am hoping someone can show me the proper way to calculate this as well as the correct height. Also, is there any way at all to know in what direction we are moving with reference to this plane? I realize with an orbit time of 250 million years in which the earth cycles through the plane 2.7 times, this would be extremely difficult to determine.
Thanks for any and all inputs!

Marbaus

Actually there is something to research. The whole point of the 'concept' of reseach is to learn about unknown frontiers. The galactic plane is one such frontier. There is a canadian group that is pouring out data from this plane on a daily basis. Like I said if you actually did the research you would have known this.

Nothing is a 'hoax' until there is sufficient evidence to such claims for either side. As far as I can see many people are wasting time here creating false claims and using totals such as '100%' which does not exist in the science relm.

This forum seems like an awesome idea but I have found the lack of researchers here a great disappointment. Good luck to you all and for those of you who actually do the experimental and observational reserach, I tip my hat to you.

Good bye.

DaveC426913

Wait. You're going to get incensed and leave in a huff because you didn't like the way a thread went that was about 2012 doomsday claims? Oh come on.

Are you trying to get painted with that same brush?

If you wanted to explore something that has substance, feel free to start a new thread.


Otherwise, there are plenty of other Fora out there that will be happy to indulge a desire for speculation, from the merely edgy to the truly silly.

russ_watters

Whether there is anything interesting about the galactic plane isn't the subject of this thread. The subject of the thread is the Mayan end-of-the-world hoax. That's not what a hoax is. A hoax is a made-up claim with made-up evidence. Ie, nothing. Nothing to prove, nothing to research.

Chronos

Crossing the galactic 'plane' is almost as much myth as the Mayan calender. The galaxy is not a rigid, symmetrical object with a clearly definable axis, or plane perpendicular to that axis. The time when the solar system will cross the galactic 'plane' is fuzzy. Proclaiming to know the the exact year, month, day, hour and minute - priceless: Ascribing deep, metaphysical significance to the 'event' - goofy. Earth crosses the 'plane' of some galaxy somewhere in the universe every day.