Galactic alignment December 21, 2012?
The following is a question being asked on Yahoo Answers. Both the questions and answers given do not reflect the view of our website.
Question:
I’m not talking about the end of the world! From what I understand, the Earth, Sun, and center of the galaxy will be in alignment on 12/21/2012. It happens every 26,000 years. I heard that it will be a spectacular sighting. So what exactly will we see from earth when this happens? What will we witness that makes this day rare and amazing?
There will be no alignment between the earth, the sun and the center of the galaxy. Such an alignment is not possible. The earth, sun, and center of the galaxy are not on the same plane with each other so it is not possible to draw a straight line through the 3 points. It will be close. But no closer than on 12/21/10, 12/21/11, or 12/21/13.
That sounds like it happens once per year as the earth orbits the sun.
There is no alignment. Whatever you’ve been told is a lie. It does not happen once every 26,000 years, or ever. It will not be a spectacular sighting. You will not see anything from Earth when this (doesn’t) happen. You will not witness anything out of the ordinary, as astronomically it will be an entirely ordinary day.
Here’s a screenshot of this so-called ‘galactic alignment’: http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/1442/2012.jpg
The Sun is at the top and the galactic centre is marked by the small circle with crosshairs at lower right. As you can see, the Sun is not particularly close to this point. What’s more, the Sun is in the same position every single year.
What happens every 26,000 years is the crossing of the galactic equator by the solstice points. This actually happened in 1998 and was of no importance whatsoever, but its proximity to 2012 has caused the cranks to make a big deal out of it.
The Sun will be in front of the Milky Way galaxy on 21st December 2012, as it is every year. Since the Milky Way is only visible from a dark sky area rather than in broad daylight, none of this routine event (not rare and amazing) will be visible anyway.
For the facts about this so-called “alignment, please read my article below.