We know that the solar system is inside the milky way galaxy, we are on one of the spiral arms of the galaxy and we are going around the center of the galaxy every 226 million years.
The milky way galaxy is 100,000 light years big (the distance between the sun and earth is just 8 light minutes). we are in the outer part of the galaxy and most of the stars and planetary systems are located near the center of the galaxy. What lies in the center of the galaxy is a big black hole, its because of the gravity of the black hole that it forms a thick galactic plane. It attracts most of the mass of the galaxy along the equator of the galaxy thus forming a plane.
Our solar system travels around the milky way in an upward downward motion like a wave.
Scientists say that the gravity of the center of the milky way, even though its huge cant affect life because its too far away (165 quadrillion miles from the Milky Way's black hole) and earth is more affected by the gravity of moon and the sun which are closer.
The time taken for the solar system to leave the galactic plane and return again is 33 million years. we passed through the milky way galactic plane 3 million years ago and we are moving northwards from the plane, not downwards like in the picture. it will take another 30 million years to meet the galactic plane . .
NASA says on 21st Dec, There's an alignment of the sun and the earth with the galactic center from earths point of view. It happens every year and its a normal event.
Based on the information from voyager 1 and 2 (they are travelling beyond Pluto and will go outside the boundaries of our solar system) and also with the help of IBEX (interstellar boundaries explorer, the latest spacecraft from NASA), the earth and all the planets of the solar system are inside the heliosphere which protects us from cosmic rays from the rest of the galaxy .we on earth are protected from the cosmic rays by our Ozone layer but the sun has a similar shield called the heliosphere.
We are learning more about the heliosphere as the voyager spacecrafts are currently in the outermost layers of the heliosphere, < as On June 15, 2012, NASA scientists reported that Voyager 1 may be very close to entering interstellar space and becoming the first man made object to leave the Solar System.
They say our solar system is travelling inside an interstellar bubble for the past 5 to 10 million years, it is 300 light years across and this interstellar bubble also protects us from cosmic rays just like the ozone layer and the heliosphere . .. . .
In May 2012 at 120 AU, Voyager 1 detected a sudden increase in cosmic rays.
Information from voyagers and IBEX shows a ribbon like structure in the edge of the heliosphere . This ribbon is a geometric effect created in the boundaries of one interstellar bubble and another bubble . Our solar system has begun to pass into this ribbon as we are travelling from the current bubble to the neighboring one.
Opher, a NASA Heliophysics Guest Investigator from George Mason University says this energy cloud is at least twice as strong as had previously been predicted and that this field "is turbulent or has a distortion in the solar vicinity."
It will take light years for the solar system to travel from one bubble to the other says scientists but we have started entering a new realm.
These interstellar bubbles are created by the supernova explosions . . within the past 10 to 20 million years at a distance greater than 120 light years .
Supernova explosions within a distance of 25 light years are capable of wiping out all the life on our planet.
The neighboring interstellar bubble that we are entering will be denser than our local bubble and more hotter, it would be a million degree. Our heliosphere is just 6000 degrees hot.
As we enter the denser interstellar bubbles, our heliosphere will shrink and it leads to more and more cosmic rays hitting our earth. We have at least 5000 yrs for something like this to happen but while entering this boundary we will be facing interstellar energy clouds like storms of charged particles from the neighboring bubble. It is an unavoidable collision.
When Dr. Alexei Dmitriev, the esteemed Russian space physicist was asked what are the implications of all this for earth he replied, "Global catastrophe! Not in tens of years from now, but in ones of years". This global catastrophe is basically right around the corner.
Pane Andov researcher and the author of astral walker says that this is a mega event that will happen between dec 21 to 23, 2012.
"Earth and space are about to come into contact in a way that's new to human history."~ Richard Fisher, head of NASA's Heliophysics Division.
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