There some folks who are just great thinkers and come up with a question I have to defer to my otherwise brilliant astronomer, Joe Rao. Here are couple “what if” questions about the sun and Joe’s response.
Q. What would happen if the sun went to the galactic center of the milky way. what would the effects of this be on the earth?
A. Well . . . first let’s consider what is located at the center of the Milky Way: It might not be the chewy nougat and caramel found on the inside of that famous candy bar. But the unique collection of exotic objects found at the center of our Galaxy have been feeding the interests of astronomers for many decades. The Galactic Center harbors a variety of intriguing puzzles, including a strangely quiescent super massive black hole, a collection of wispy magnetic filaments, a few dense stellar super clusters which host mysterious and massive stars, a star with a tail, and a family of gas streamers spiraling toward a central dark mass.
The Galactic Center is obscured from our view by a prodigious amount of absorbing gas and dust that lies along the 25,000 light year (2.5X10^17 mile) distance from there to our Sun. As a result, most of what we know about this part of our galaxy comes from observations of radio and infrared radiation, whose long wavelengths can pass through the dense absorbing medium and reach our telescopes on Earth.
My guess is, that if we could somehow move our Sun to the center of our galaxy we’d probably see a much brighter night sky . . . many more very bright stars than what we are accustomed to seeing. And a much brighter and more spectacular version of what we call the Milky Way. I suppose everything we might see would appear pretty exotic by our standards. And so long as we stayed clear of that supposed black hole, we’d probably fare okay.
Q. what are your predictions for a possible axis change on the year 2012?
A. You probably are referring to the exceptionally large solar cycle that is expected in 2012. We’ll probably see a lot of sunspots, solar flares and dramatic displays of the aurora borealis. But so far as knocking Earth’s axis out of kilter, THAT will never happen.
So . . . I wouldn’t sweat this.
I expect we will hear much more about the doom and gloom of 2012. I go with Joe… let’s not sweat this one.
Peter Geiger is the Editor of the Farmers' Almanac. 
If you notice a hole in the upper left-hand corner of your Farmers' Almanac, don't return it to the store! That hole isn't a defect; it's a part of history. Starting with the first edition of the Farmers' Almanac in 1818, readers used to nail holes into the corners to hang it up in their homes, barns, and outhouses (to provide both reading material and toilet paper). In 1910, the Almanac's publishers began pre-drilling holes in the corners to make it even easier for readers to keep all of that invaluable information (and paper) handy.
