Celestial Alignment, 2012, and Nostradamus?

[flobadob]

I watched a programme recently called The Nostradamus Effect, which weirdly had very little to do with Nostradamus himself. It was mostly about the many different cultures which have supposedly foretold of various catastrophes which will plague our good selves in 2012.

One of the theories which caught my eye was a phenomenon called celestial alignment. According to this programme, in 2012 our Sun will move into the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way, and furthermore the planets of the Solar System will come into some sort of alignment. Obviously this all leads to various earthquakes, volcanoes, and badness in general.

Although, I'm pretty sure a lot of this programme was exaggerated for effect, I'm wondering is there any truth to this theory as I would assume that if it's true there will be some sort of gravitational fluxes or whatever? Has anyone heard of this, or have any thoughts on it?

[jackthehat]

It happens remarkably frequently.

[jackthehat]

http://www.2012hoax.org/planetary-alignment

[MarkRae]

Every 26,000 years, in fact. The last time it happened was in 1998. However, there is a potential variance of +/- 18 years, so the galactic alignment zone this time round is between 1980 and 2016.

The Mayans were incredibly close in coming up with 21 December 2012 as the end of their "Long Count" calendar. However, like all calendars, the fact that it ends doesn't mean that they thought the world would end - it's simply the last day in the 26,000 year cycle, after which the next one will begin.

Nostradamus can be interpreted as predicting anything you like. When he wrote "Hister" he obviously meant "Hitler", right? Or maybe that's just what they called the Danube region at the time...

[ChuckFickens]

The sun will move to the centre of the galaxy??

I hope not, the centre of the milky way is about 27,000 light years away and there is a flaming great black hole there!

Or do you mean the galactic plane? which the sun passes through a couple of times a year.

[ll_billym]

More facts about what is going to happen next year can be found by watching this:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1190080/

[beso]

It is a load of complete cr@p. The centre of the galaxy is about 26,000 light years away so I don't see us getting there any time soon. However, if we did it would be a bad time because we would be consumed by the super-massive black hole there.

Even if all the planets did line up there would be no perceivable effect on the Earth.

[flobadob]

Damn those lying programme makers. Why would they do such a thing?

[beso]

The calendar provided at our local hardware shop ends on December 31st so that must surely be the end of time.

Maybe not this year but incredibly, next year it will be remarkably close to the end of the Mayan calndar. Amazing coincidence or prophetic?

[flobadob]

I saw that film billym. I was expecting it to be shiite, and I was correct in my assumption.

[MarkRae]

I saw the programme when it was first broadcast. There was no mention of the sun moving to the centre of the Milky Way...

[flobadob]

I think if anything happens next year, it will either be a major scientific discovery or a major financial meltdown.

[beso]

http://ridic.tumblr.c...-somebody-out-someday

[flobadob]

MarkRae, I Sky+'d it and I partially quote from the programme "During the winter solstice of 2012 there will be a galactic alignment which will place our Sun at the heart of our home galaxy, The Milky Way." I'm not saying it's true but just to point out that i didn't make it up.

[MarkRae]

They were clearly referring to the galactic plane. For the sun to travel the 27,000 light years to the centre of the Milky Way by next December would have Einstein spinning in his grave... :-)

[flobadob]

Well, I took "heart of home galaxy" to mean the centre of the galaxy. They's really need to be clearer to us lay folk.

[bibblebub]

it might indicate that they don't understand the basics of astronomy and are just spouting astrological guff

[Kayless]

Load of old pony, end of.

[cazzz1975]

If you read the wiki article on the mayan calendar these dates are mainly guesswork on the part of numerous scholars, one date that was given as a possible end date was ironically 28/10/2011..today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_calendar

[heathfield]

I am 100% confident that 2012 will come about next year. Er, by the Gregorian calendar, that is! ;-)