"Can life develop on an earth-sized moon of a jovian planet that orbits in the habitable zone of its parent star's system?"
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David Morrison denied the galactic alignment of 2012 in one of his answers. My concern about this is in all of my research, both the doomsday yaysayers and naysayers have talked about this. Even those who say nothing is going to happen in 2012 as a result of the alignment or anything else admit that this alignment is going to happen.
Several people have written to question my statement that there is no alignment in December 2012. It would have been more accurate if I had said “no significant alignment” or “no unique alignment”. Every December the position of the Sun as seen from the Earth passes near the galactic center. In the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. There is nothing special about 2012. The main point, however, is that “alignments” do not have any astronomical significance, whether they involve planets or the Sun or the galactic center. There is a widespread myth that we should be concerned about such alignments, but this is untrue. Astrologers are probably interested in planetary alignments, but they are not of interest to astronomers, and they do not support various doomsday claims.
David Morrison
NAI Senior Scientist
October 13, 2009
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