Questions Show: Alignment with the Galactic Plane, Destruction from Venus, and the Death of the Solar System

Another week, another roundup of your questions. This week listeners asked: are we all going to die in 2012 when the solar system passes through the galactic plane? Did Venus make the Moon? And what will extraterrestrials see when the Sun is dead and gone? And there's even more. If you've got a question for the Astronomy Cast team, please email it in to info@astronomycast.com and we'll try to tackle it for a future show.

Alignment with the Galactic Plane, Destruction from Venus, and the Death of the Solar System

Are we all going to die in 2012 when the solar system passes through the galactic plane?

• No (short answer- see details below)
• How often does our sun pass through an arm of our galaxy? – Cornell University
• Thickness of the Milky Way – Internet Encyclopedia of Science
• Solar system bounces or oscillates through the galaxy, could increase comet strikes – Universe Today
• Milky Way is "foamy" – Tufts University
• Will we get sucked into the black hole at the center of our galaxy? -- Cornell University
• Major extinction events on Earth – Wiki
• Universe Today's 2012 articles

Did Venus crash into the Earth and create the Moon?

• All about Venus – Nine Planets
• More about Venus -- Universe Today's Guide to Space
• The Big Whack, or how the Moon may have been created — NOVA
• How Uranus Got Its Tilt -- Planetary Society

What will extraterrestrials see in our solar system when the sun is dead and gone?

• White dwarfs — Goddard Space Flight Center
• Optical Gravitational Lensing Project (OGLE) — Internet Encyclopedia of Science
• Massive Compact Halo Object (MACHO) – Internet Encyclopedia of Science
• Paper:  MACHOs Viewed from a Cosmological Perspective
• Gravitational Lensing -- Goddard
• Large and Small Magellanic Clouds – U of Alabama

If nothing can escape a black hole, why do images show jets of high speed particles shooting off black holes?

• Images
• Accretion disk around a black hole – SEDS
• Graviton – Wiki

Do black holes attract objects gravitationally from all angles?

• Conservation of angular momentum
• xkcd comic on angular momentum
• fictional force – Internet Encyclopedia of Science

Has the universe already expanded so much that we're only seeing the "local group" of larger universe?

• End of the Universe Part II
• How big is the universe? –NOVA
• Expansion of the universe
• How fast is the Universe expanding? – WMAP
• CMB — NASA

1. Sarah Says:
   October 10th, 2008 at 8:05 pm

   I heard that God's throne is at the center of the milky way and his throne is on the other side of the black hole…..so what does that mean about 2012's galactic alignment?

2. JIM Says:
   October 11th, 2008 at 1:13 am

   I have heard that the Sun MAY blast us with Great solar flair in a few years.
   Will this change oyr orbit any?

3. SF Reader Says:
   October 13th, 2008 at 9:23 am

   The RSS feed link points to the previous Q&A show, about running out of gravitons etc.
   The sidebar link gets here just fine.

   I'll be listeding Real Sood Dow. not a typo — got a ferocious cold!

   Dennis

4. bernard godfrey Says:
   October 14th, 2008 at 2:23 am

   Dear Frasier and Pamela,

   A great show that I enjoy listing to here in Spain where I live.

   A question for Pamela, taking into account all known data what is the percentage likelyhood of there being other life in the universe? I also very mush enjoyed the thoughts raised in your panspermis show.

   Bernard t Godfrey

5. Lyndon Westmoreland Says:
   November 10th, 2008 at 6:58 pm

   A great show! I have listened every day since I discovered this podcast about 9 months ago. I've listened through all the previous shows about 6 months ago as I drove a truck for a parts delivery service. Keep up the good work!

Leave a Reply