What will happen in 2012 when the earth aligns with the center of our galaxy?

Question

how will our life on earth change, if it does at all? something about polar reversal.

Answer 1

Our solar system does one complete cycle in 26000 years through the zodiac, but also it bobs up and down in the arm of Orion in that 26000 year period. So eventually, the solar system will come to the galactic equator. If it is scheduled for 2012 to be at the zone where it meets the plane of the galactic equator, there is only one option I can think of.

Magnetic pole reversal. Since the galaxy it's self must have a powerful magnetic field in order to keep everything where it is, relatively that is.

Will it be destructive? Who knows. Maybe.

Answer 2

Earth will not align with the center of our galaxy in 2012 (cross the galactic plane, happens every 250,000 years, without special effects) - or do something which happens every year without special effects (cross the origin of the galactic coordinate system)

Answer 3

Nothing at all.

Firstly, the supposed alignment is not happening at all. "The Earth" as such has no "alignment" to speak of - we're spinning around the poles, revolving around the Sun, and the entire solar system is also in a complicated orbit around the centre of the Milky Way. About the only things that could get "aligned" are the axis of the Earth itself, the line between the Earth and the Sun, and the line perpendicular to the ecliptic plane (the surface of the Earth's orbit around the Sun). None of these point anywhere near the centre of the Milky Way.

Secondly, there are only two objects with any particular influence over the Earth - the Sun and the Moon. The Moon's influence is a lot stronger than the rest of the planets combined, and the same holds for any stars outside the solar system, very much so.

Take a look at the link below, which has more detail. It is about a different scenario, but it's essentially the same idea.

Answer 4

Alligned with what? Two points in space are always aligned.

And nothing will happen 2012. I believe 2012 is just when the Mayan calender ends. And this means nothing. The Mayans didn't predict anything on 2012... it is just when their calender runs out and they would have just replaced it with another calender system if they were still around. They just picked an arbitrary year and started counting down to it unlike our calender with which we count up.

There is nothing astronomically special happening 2012. Please tell me where everyone is hearing this malarkey.

Answer 5

NOTHING

or

An invisible beam of electromagnetic radiation will slice the earth in half.

Your guess.

Answer 6

It's just crazy talk, caused by a reckless, stupid, and irresponsible documentary repeatedly aired by the History Channel.  It has since been embellished and linked to many other false claims.

The earth and sun do not align with the center of the galaxy.  The apparent path of the sun crosses the line of the galaxy's equator on December 21 every year.  It misses the center by about six degrees.  In other words, there is absolutely nothing remarkable about 2012.  And even if there was an alignment, so what?  All sorts of alignments have occurred in the past with no consequences whatsoever.  Never has there been an alignment which has corresponded with some kind of planetary disaster.  Why should there be, just because the earth crosses a point on the far side of the sun from the center of the galaxy, which is about 24,000 light years away?

Answer 7

Well, perhaps places like Baskin Robins will offer ice cream specials or perhaps name an ice cream for this special event. That would be cool.

Answer 8

Think - how can the Earth align with anything?  If you mean the apparent alignment of the sun with the galactic centre from the perspective of Earth, that can't happen because our solar system and Earth's orbit in the solar system just aren't angled to create that illusion.

The galactic centre is 25,000 light years away, hidden behind clouds of dust and gas (we can't even see it from here) - no way it could affect the Earth at all.

If it can't affect Earth now, it certainly can't have any effect just because of a chance appearance of alignment.  Its amazing how non-scientists believe in the "power" of alignments (there is no scientific evidence that alignments of distantly-spaced objects have any effect on each other).

And some people are so convinced of the power of alignment they see things lining up even when they don't really line up at all.

So sad, really - these people are so lost in these myths and trash that they don't see the true beauty of the cosmos.

Answer 9

the myan calendar(which our calendar is based off of in part) stops at  december 2012. supposedly their god comes back and the world is destroyed or something, but no one will know what will happen until that date. no worries though, if you remember everyone was freaking out in 1999, worried that the computers would crash in 2000 and we would all become amish. that obviously didn't happen so there is no guarantee that this will happen either.

Answer 10

no alignment, nothing will happen, it's all bullshit.

it's nothing more than a cruel and cynical hoax. you should know better.

Answer 11

Can this be related with the Mayan predictions, that the end of our world is by 2012. in discovery channel i saw a program in which their prediction till now were accurate... but we can believe everything what the TV says...

Answer 12

It's pretty much hogwash... There'll be no change (other than the one's we're making ourselves) to life on Earth.  

Answer 13

Earth aligns with the center of the galaxy every December, not just in 2012. The center of the Galaxy is seen in the direction of Sagittarius, and the Sun is seen in that direction every December, which means the Earth, Sun, and galactic center are lined up then.

Answer 14

We'll just have to wait about four years and a little less than four months to find out.

Answer 15

Scientists don't expect anything out of the ordinary to happen in the year 2012, or specifically on the date December 21, other than the solstice, which happens every year.

None of the "predicted" happenings for 2012 hold up under close scrutiny. "Planet X" and "Nibiru" simply don't exist. The Mayan calendar ends a cycle, but there were no predictions of the end of the world. The Sun doesn't line up with the galactic centre; it's 6 degrees off. No asteroids or comets are actually predicted to hit Earth.

All of this stuff was put together by crackpots in order to promote their books and TV shows, and shamelessly promoted by the History Channel. Don't take any of it seriously!

Here is an article which I wrote about the so-called alignment with the centre of our galaxy:

http://www.starrynight.com/sntimes/2008/...