Our Galactic Plane

[Turtle]

Often in popular science programs a description of our galaxy, the Milky Way, is given as some preface to an Earth related matter of astronomy. Most recently I heard a speaker give a partial, albeit incomplete, description of the Milky way that was accurate inasfar as it was the view from above/below whein one see the spiral arms.

Without going on to clarify that from the edge-on view the Milky Way has a bulge in the center and the 'arms' thin considerably the further they get from the center, the speaker went on then talking about the 'galactic plane'. The lecture criticizing aside, I heard the statement that our solar system is about to cross the galactic plane, and I haven't turned up any bona fide links yet to confirm that.

Now I best clarify , so the galactic plane is the imaginary plane projected through the galactic center and parallel to the galactic equator, our solar system is out near the edge of an arm/spoke and rotating around the galactic center, while at the same time moving up and then down across the galactic plane. (I will post the periodicity of those movements as soon as I find them. )So, a Brotherly Biscuit of gratitude for any and all who can find a bona fide link that establishes our current position and direction in relation to the Milky Way's galactic plane. (I'm still looking myself of course. )

[InfiniteNow]

Not sure if this will get you what you are after, but it's fun all the same. It's a free downloadable atlas of the universe provided by the Hayden Planetarium:

About the Digital Universe | Digital Universe Atlas | Hayden Planetarium

Since 1998, the American Museum of Natural History and the Hayden Planetarium have engaged in the three-dimensional mapping of the Universe. This cosmic cartography brings a new perspective to our place in the Universe and will redefine your sense of home.

The Digital Universe Atlas is distributed to you via packages that contain our data products, like the Milky Way Atlas and the Extragalactic Atlas, and requires free software allowing you to explore the atlas by "flying" through it on your computer.

My god, it's full of stars.

Looking back on the Milky Way from M54, a globular cluster that's 85,000 light-years from Earth.

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by InfiniteNow

Not sure if this will get you what you are after, but it's fun all the same. It's a free downloadable atlas of the universe provided by the Hayden Planetarium:

About the Digital Universe | Digital Universe Atlas | Hayden Planetarium

My god, it's full of stars.

Sweet! Did you download it? I can't download anything without permission as this is not my computer, but if you downloaded it by all means let me know if it answers my question. I'm still searching....

[InfiniteNow]

Facing the same problem. Must have admin password (which I do, but would get into some heat if used). I'll see if I can check out it out on my girlfriend's computer next time I'm at her palce... Problem is, she's always at mine. :Patience:

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by InfiniteNow

Facing the same problem. Must have admin password (which I do, but would get into some heat if used). I'll see if I can check out it out on my girlfriend's computer next time I'm at her palce... Problem is, she's always at mine. :Patience:

Acknowledged. I found this quirky tidbit searching the phrase Web Search Results 1 - 10 of about 29,700 for 'Where is Earth in relation to the galactic plane?'

American College of Orgonomy - Celestial Motion (Part I): A Lawful Relationship Between the Rotation Of the Planets and the Galactic Plane

The author gives no hard data on current state, describes planetary/solar- system motion relative to the galactic plane as '... carried along like rolling balls on progressing water waves,...', and seems to talk about aether.

At any rate, the search goes on; is Earth above or below the Galactic Plane right Now? Is Earth approaching or receding from the Galactic Plane right Now? What is the periodicity of the cycle?

[Pyrotex]

I take my one and only trip
On the Galactic Plane.
I stare out the window.
The stars look so far away.

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Pyrotex

I take my one and only trip
On the Galactic Plane.
I stare out the window.
The stars look so far away.

But failing fare
I missed the train,
and pon my window,
dayly rain.

Knowing how much everyone loves Wicky, I have found some data there...alas it only gives the periodicity for our solar system's trip around the galaxy.

Originally Posted by Wicky

It would take the solar system about 226 million years to complete one orbit ("galactic year"), and so is thought to have completed about 25 orbits during its lifetime. The orbital speed is 217 km/s, i.e. 1 lightyear in about 1,400 years, and 1 AU in 8 days.

Solar apex - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aha! But it led me to this:

Originally Posted by americanscientist.org

Our sun is also in motion. Relative to the average motion of the most commonly measured nearby stars, the sun moves with a speed of about 16.5 kilometers per second, or nearly 50 light-years per million years. The sun's path is inclined about 25 degrees to the plane of the galaxy and is headed toward a region in the constellation of Hercules near its border with Lyra. The sun oscillates through the plane of the galaxy with an amplitude of about 230 light-years, crossing the plane every 33 million years. However, the sun's motion relative to the local stellar neighborhood should not be confused with its movement around the center of the galaxy, since the whole solar neighborhood (including the sun) orbits the galactic center once every 250 million years. Just as we do not include the earth's velocity around the sun when calculating the speed of an airplane (we are only interested in the ground-speed), astronomers do not include the sun's galactic orbital velocity when describing its local motion.

American Scientist Online - The Galactic Environment of the Sun

Well, off to read the whole paper as we have the periodicity now but I haven't found the current state info..

[Eclogite]

However in a letter to Nature (Periodic mass extinctions and the Sun's oscillation about the galactic plane) these astronomers note the periodicity to be 26 million years.
In another letter to Nature (The Sun's motion perpendicular to the galactic plane) we are told "For all the models we consider, the most recent passage of the Sun through the galactic plane occurred in the past 3 Myr provided only that the present position of the Sun is between 0 and 20 pc above the plane."

Please note that the full cycle is double whatever of the above figures we go with.

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Eclogite

However in a letter to Nature (Periodic mass extinctions and the Sun's oscillation about the galactic plane) these astronomers note the periodicity to be 26 million years.
In another letter to Nature (The Sun's motion perpendicular to the galactic plane) we are told "For all the models we consider, the most recent passage of the Sun through the galactic plane occurred in the past 3 Myr provided only that the present position of the Sun is between 0 and 20 pc above the plane."

Please note that the full cycle is double whatever of the above figures we go with.

Great info Eclogite! I could only read the Abstracts, but it's enough to get the sense no one has as precise a measure of our location as some have suggested. To whit, the guy I heard talking that prompted this thread was claiming our solar system was going to cross the galactic plane in 2012.

So we only know our perpindicular position to within 20 pc (parsecs, right?) and our distance from the center of the galaxy within 10,000 light-years, so anyone claiming knowledge of a precise time of our crossing is exagerating the facts...yes?

But still, even the Nature blurb seems to allow enough error that we could still be approaching the glactic plane. The game's still afoot then, if for no other reason than no one seems to have said if we are now above, or below the galactic plane. Then there's that haunting nasty business of extinction, and while the Nature articles have it correlated to the galactic plane, the article I got the 33 million year cycle from correlated extictions to our position in relation to the Local Bubble.

Originally Posted by americanscientist

...The sun is on the edge of what is sometimes called the Local Bubble, a great void in the distribution of interstellar gas in the nearby galactic neighborhood.

American Scientist Online - The Galactic Environment of the Sun

Plane it may be, simple it is not.

[freeztar]

Interesting thread...

So have there been any new developments?

Where the heck are we?