Earth is in the outer spirals area of the Galaxy, yes?

Question

does anyone know the time period that passes while the Earth and our Sun and Solar System, all travel from the higher plane to the lower plane of the spiral?.... I caught just a tad of the info on a show and they were talking about how it could have something to do with mass extinctions and the disturbance of the Oort Cloud's comets...??

Answer 1

"Harry Potter"'s answer isn't quite accurate. I believe you're referring to the oscillations of the solar system within the galactic arm itself. I've recently read an article on this subject and know what you're talking about, but unfortunately can't remember where I read it (space.com, probably). A google search brings up some scientific abstracts such as the one linked below (first link) that say the period of oscillation could be about 26 million years. Another site (University of Kansas, second link) puts the period at about 62 million years; I think that's the one that you might be thinking about, as the article's only a few months old.

Answer 2

About half of the time necessary for a complete revolution around the galactic centre (230 million years, so this passage happens in 115 million years). If this could be linked to mass extinctions, it isn't known..even if a mass extinction has occurred about each 100 million years.
The Earth isn't in the outer spiral of the Milky Way. The spiral which contains the Sun is the Orion Arm. The outer spiral is called Perseus Arm. The inner one is the Sagittarius Arm.

Answer 3

To quote Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy the Earth is at one of the unfashionable ends of the spiral galactic arms.

Answer 4

i think it takes about 200 million years for our solar system to travel around the milky way galaxy, so it would take 100 million years to travel from higher plane to lower plane

Answer 5

Yes...we're about 2/3rds of the way out from the galactic center.