what does it mean when our solar system is about to pass through the planar axis of our galaxy ?

Question

seriously can someone explain this?!

Answer 1

Planer means plane, so our solar system is about to pass through the plane of the galaxy.

The galaxy is a pancake and the solar system is about 2/3rds of the way to the edge. In addition to rotating around the center of the galaxy, the solar system also goes up to the top of the pancake and then gravity causes it to come back down and go all the way to the bottom of the pancake at which point it starts heading up to the top again.

The planar axis would be the midpoint of the pancake, half way between the top and the bottom.

Answer 2

While I do not know if your statement is true, this is what it sounds like it means to me...

Compare our galaxy to the earth. The earth is spinning around a central axis that we call the North and South pole. The planar axis of our planet would be an imaginary flat surface perpendicular to this north/south axis. The surface would be located at the center of mass of the earth, which would mean it passes through the equator.

Now think of the galaxy being just like earth. The galaxy is spinning aroud a centeral axis. Its planar axis would be an imaginary surface perpendicular to this axis and would pass through the center of mass of the galaxy.

Like the earth, the galaxy is not two dimentional, but three dimensional. This means that all the stars do not exist in this imaginary planar axis. Some reside above the planer axis (just like the entire northern hemisphere is above the equater) and some reside below the planer axis. But unlike the earth, the galaxy is composed of disconnected stars that can move under the influence of gravity. As a result, any star that is above this planer axis (the plane that defines where the center of mass of the galaxy is) is being pulled toward that plane. But once it reaches the plane, there is nothing to stop it, so it passes right on through and starts getting pulled from the other side. In otherwords, the star slowly occilates from being above the plane to being below the plane.

So to me, your original statement indicates that our solar system is about to move from being above that plane to being below it (or vis-versa depending upon which way you want to say is "up" for our galaxy).

I know that's still a bit complex, but I hope it helps. The only thing else to say is that going back to comparing it to the earth, you can think of the solar system as being a boat on the high seas of the earth. To say the solar system is about to pass through the planer axis of the earth just means the boat is about to sail through the equator, moving from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere (or again, vis-versa).

Answer 3

Absolutely nothing. We have only an approximate idea of where the planar axis of our galaxy actually lies, and our position relative to it should make no difference at all.