milky way's galactic plane, visible

GAMMA-RAY VISIONSAfter just 95 hours of data collection, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope revealed its first all-sky map of cosmic gamma-ray emissions. Most prominent are the gamma rays in the plane of the Milky Way (center), but bright pulsars and supermassive black hole systems called blazars also flared into view.

full story

NASA, DOE, International LAT Team

So we're going to be inside that bright area 12/21/12? Its gamma radiation produced by cosmic ray collisions. I don't understand how that could be a good thing; are some people going to be transforming into the hulk?

credit: earthfiles.com

[edit on 2-9-2008 by reject]

We are in the galactic plane. We have been for a long time. We will be for a long time. The Milky way is 12,000 light years thick.

Have you ever seen the Milky Way at night? Ever notice how it bisects the sky? That fact demonstrates that we are within the galactic plane.

The Earth's outer atmosphere has and will do a fine job of protecting us from the gamma radiation that pervades space. That is why it took a space based telescope to get the image you posted.

reply to post by Phage
really? So, there's really nothing to all that 2012 hoopla then? Here I was beginning to think there might be something to it after all

as a thank you, here's a nice animation of the martian sky just for you

www.msnbc.msn.com... 708/



[edit on 2-9-2008 by reject]

Here's a nifty little toy--lets you zoom in and out of the galaxy. And no, there's really nothing to all that 2012 hoopla.

www.atlasoftheuniverse.com...

The Universe within 50000 Light Years
The Milky Way Galaxy

This map shows the full extent of the Milky Way galaxy - a spiral galaxy of at least two hundred billion stars. Our Sun is buried deep within the Orion Arm about 26 000 light years from the centre. Towards the centre of the Galaxy the stars are packed together much closer than they are where we live. Notice also the presence of small globular clusters of stars which lie well outside the plane of the Galaxy, and notice too the presence of a nearby dwarf galaxy - the Sagittarius dwarf - which is slowly being swallowed up by our own galaxy.

OMG THAT THIRD CLOUD FROM TEH LEFT LOOKS LIKE A SECRET FLOATING MARTIAN BASE OMG LOOK AT HOW IT JUMPS BACK OUT OF TEH SCREEN EVERY 3 SECONDS! THATS NOT NATURAL ITS A FAKE!!!1! NASA COVERUP 2012
no seriously i want a source on that video.

As for that gamma-ray shot, if you look at the image sideways, you will notice they forgot to indicate two important areas; the Labia Majoris and the Labia Minoris.

...Unfortunately, the Crab Pulsar has been acknowledged (i thought they made special shampoos for that...)

While flying the other night from Bangkok (after being stuck in Thailand due to protests - another story entirely), I got the most amazing view of the night sky. I was sitting on the right side of the aircraft and was able to look out towards the west - the brilliance of the Milky Way is astounding at 39,000ft.

I literally saw thousands of stars I've never been able to view from the ground, and they seemed a lot more visible than on previous flights I've taken. The Milky Way was nearly as bright as I've seen in long exposure photos, and it was equally amazing to see it disappear when it met the horizon. That sight, coupled with a few huge thunderstorms was otherworldly. And I was lucky enough to see two falling stars as well.

As for the 2012 thing, yes we are in that vicinity of the galactic plane right now and have been for some time, however the Dec. 2012 date marks the precise moment the Earth passes from one 'galactic hemisphere' to the other while crossing the equator. It's an important milestone in a gargantuan cycle, something that we should consider ourselves very lucky to witness.

And regarding what will happen in 2012, who knows? If nothing paranormal happens, we should at least mark the date & remember we're all a part of a mammoth process that's equally complex from the sub-atomic to the universal level.

reply to post by kidney thief
get your mind out of the gutter, and stop putting things in my head

Originally posted by Phage


The Earth's outer atmosphere has and will do a fine job of protecting us from the gamma radiation that pervades space. That is why it took a space based telescope to get the image you posted.

news.softpedia.com...
news.nationalgeographic.com...
www.livescience.com...

The links provided might explain why our outer atmosphere may NOT protect us from everything.

As for 2012 I don't know either But I enjoy this man's theory and what information he presents.

video.google.com...

sure we can 'see' the galactic plane...but...


great dreams. com: uses John Major Jenkins reckoning that the actual crossing the galactic plane will take 36 years to complete...
the crossing begun in 1980-through-2016


kachina.net: cites astrophysicists & others, who estimate the Earth and solar system cross the galactic plane ever (about) 33 million years


snoedel.punt.nl:
#1. tells us the alignment of the sun at the December solstice near the galactic center, is an event that occurs every 26,000 years , over a period that lasts for 144 years to complete the crossing
#2. & that the entire solar system intersects the Galactic Plane about every 30 million years...


au.answers.yahoo.com: points out... the dense part of the galactic plane is ~200 light-years thick...
its difficult to locate the exact galactic equator/plane any closer than 5 light-years.
So the date we, Earth & Sun, pass through the galactic plane/equator,
at a speed of 30 kilometers per second, has an error factor of 1/2 million years...


it is only in the recent 20th century that measurements were taken which show the solar system oscillates several times, over and under an imaginary galactic equator/galactic plane, during its ~250 million year galactic orbit, at some 30km per second.
...i think that the much older Sumerian civilization had better cosmic observations than the historically recent Maya calendar priests


thanks,

Originally posted by reject
So we're going to be inside that bright area 12/21/12?

sorry, don't see where you're coming from. i have a suspicion that if there were bright pulsars and super massive black holes anywhere near close enough to make anything but a negligible impact on us in just over four years we wouldn't need a space based telescope to alert us to it.

the furthest away they could possibly be is 8 light years, if we and they were travelling at the speed of light, which we're not and they're not. two or three light years is more realistic, which would make the pulsars very obvious to the naked eye and the blazers would make a fire work show look like a flaring match.

Originally posted by St Udio
sure we can 'see' the galactic plane...but...


great dreams. com: uses John Major Jenkins reckoning that the actual crossing the galactic plane will take 36 years to complete...
the crossing begun in 1980-through-2016

Uhhh, we're currently 67 light years north of the galactic plane. We are definately NOT in the middle of a crossing.

snoedel.punt.nl:
#1. tells us the alignment of the sun at the December solstice near the galactic center, is an event that occurs every 26,000 years , over a period that lasts for 144 years to complete the crossing

That's precession and it has NOTHING to do with crossing a galactic plane, nor does it have any noticeable impact on earth other than the locations of the stars in the sky.

au.answers.yahoo.com: points out... the dense part of the galactic plane is ~200 light-years thick...
its difficult to locate the exact galactic equator/plane any closer than 5 light-years.
So the date we, Earth & Sun, pass through the galactic plane/equator,
at a speed of 30 kilometers per second, has an error factor of 1/2 million years...

Good thing we're not within 1 to 2 million years of a crossing, we're 67 light years above it, well out of the error bar.