Question

You have mentioned that we passed through galactic plane millions of years ago and wikipedia says that we are now in galactic plane(entered in 1980 and exit at 2016). Whom should I believe?

The Wikipedia article on the Milky way summarizes as follows: “The Sun is currently 5–30 parsecs from the central plane of the galactic disc.” (that is, about 20 to 100 Light Years). There is a substantial uncertainty, because the plane itself is not well defined observationally. In any case, there is no evidence that we are in the galactic plane or about to cross it. The interval between crossings is about 30 million years. More to the point, there is no physical significance to crossing the galactic plane. The idea that crossing the plane (which might take a million years or so) subjects us to some special forces (or dangers) is just pseudoscience. One lesson I hope everyone will take from the current Internet nonsense about 2012 is that so-called alignments, whether of planets or the Sun or anything else, are no threat and are not actually of any scientific interest.

David Morrison
NAI Senior Scientist
October 18, 2009