Astronomy Beat

A Galactic Alignment in December 2012 – So What?
by Dr. Donald Yeomans (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

Because of the Earth's motion about the Sun each year, the Sun appears to move through each of the so-called zodiacal star constellations. Because the Earth's rotation axis gradually shifts from year to year, the Sun does not appear to be exactly at the same celestial location at the same time each year. For the recent period, the Sun's apparent position as seen from the Earth each December is in the constellation of Sagittarius, which happens to be the direction of our Milky Way Galaxy's center. This center is located on the Galaxy's mid-plane or equator. So each December, the Earth, Sun and the Galactic center are roughly aligned. But so what?
Some uninformed alarmists, based on no evidence whatsoever, have announced on Internet sites that this Galactic alignment does not bode well for Earth in December 2012. Other self-appointed new-age seers claim this galactic alignment in December 2012 will usher in a spiritual renewal for humanity or a harmonic convergence – whatever that means. The former group fears the gravitational influence of the Sun and the black hole at the Galaxy's center will disturb the Earth, while the latter group argues that the apparent position of the Sun on the 2012 winter solstice (Dec. 21, 2012), will enter the Milky Way's "dark rift" along the central plane of the Milky Way and that this was a particularly significant event for the ancient Mayans.

The center of the Milky Way, including the black hole, is much too far away (30,000 light years¹) to have any appreciable effect upon Earth and this alignment occurs each December without consequence. The Milky Way's "dark rift" is simply due to giant dust clouds in the plane of our Galaxy and there is nothing special about the apparent position of the Sun entering this region. Nor is there anything special about the winter-solstice Sun crossing the galactic equator, which in any case already occurred in 1998. Furthermore, according to one of the most credible Mayan scholars, Anthony Aveni, there is little evidence the Maya cared much about the Milky Way.

There have been a number of outrageous predictions concerning upcoming disasters during the December 2012 time period and an equal number of new-age predictions for a transformational period brought on by an unremarkable galactic alignment. Be they on the Internet or elsewhere, extraordinary claims must be backed up by extraordinary evidence. None of these disaster or new age predictions for December 2012 is based upon any credible scientific evidence.
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1. One light-year (the distance that light travels in a year) is about 6,000 billion miles or 9500 billion km. 30,000 of these light years is therefore an enormous distance.



	Astronomy Beat is a twice-monthly, on-line column written by "insiders" from the worlds of astronomy research and outreach available exclusively to members of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. As a public service, the nonprofit Society is making the issue on the so-called "2012 Doomsday" freely available to everyone.

	September 21, 2009 Astronomy Beat #32 Doomsday 2012, the Planet Nibiru, and Cosmophobia (PDF, 904 KB) by David Morrison (NASA Astrobiology Institute Senior Scientist) Click on the link above to view the pdf, or right-click (PC)/control-click (Mac) the link to download the file to your computer. A lot of recent public and web interest has focused on the issue of whether the alignment of our Sun with the plane or center of the Milky Way Galaxy might cause some disaster in 2012. Here is a statement by Dr. Don Yeomans (JPL) on this subject.

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A Galactic Alignment in December 2012 – So What? by Dr. Donald Yeomans (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) Because of the Earth's motion about the Sun each year, the Sun appears to move through each of the so-called zodiacal star constellations. Because the Earth's rotation axis gradually shifts from year to year, the Sun does not appear to be exactly at the same celestial location at the same time each year. For the recent period, the Sun's apparent position as seen from the Earth each December is in the constellation of Sagittarius, which happens to be the direction of our Milky Way Galaxy's center. This center is located on the Galaxy's mid-plane or equator. So each December, the Earth, Sun and the Galactic center are roughly aligned. But so what? Some uninformed alarmists, based on no evidence whatsoever, have announced on Internet sites that this Galactic alignment does not bode well for Earth in December 2012. Other self-appointed new-age seers claim this galactic alignment in December 2012 will usher in a spiritual renewal for humanity or a harmonic convergence – whatever that means. The former group fears the gravitational influence of the Sun and the black hole at the Galaxy's center will disturb the Earth, while the latter group argues that the apparent position of the Sun on the 2012 winter solstice (Dec. 21, 2012), will enter the Milky Way's "dark rift" along the central plane of the Milky Way and that this was a particularly significant event for the ancient Mayans. The center of the Milky Way, including the black hole, is much too far away (30,000 light years¹) to have any appreciable effect upon Earth and this alignment occurs each December without consequence. The Milky Way's "dark rift" is simply due to giant dust clouds in the plane of our Galaxy and there is nothing special about the apparent position of the Sun entering this region. Nor is there anything special about the winter-solstice Sun crossing the galactic equator, which in any case already occurred in 1998. Furthermore, according to one of the most credible Mayan scholars, Anthony Aveni, there is little evidence the Maya cared much about the Milky Way. There have been a number of outrageous predictions concerning upcoming disasters during the December 2012 time period and an equal number of new-age predictions for a transformational period brought on by an unremarkable galactic alignment. Be they on the Internet or elsewhere, extraordinary claims must be backed up by extraordinary evidence. None of these disaster or new age predictions for December 2012 is based upon any credible scientific evidence. __________________________________ 1. One light-year (the distance that light travels in a year) is about 6,000 billion miles or 9500 billion km. 30,000 of these light years is therefore an enormous distance.