What's a Factor of 10,000 Mix Up Mean Anyway?

Ok, so if you grew up in the 80s (after there were desktop computers but before the Internet) there was a game called Number Munchers, which they used to teach kids factors, multiples and a bunch of other good stuff.

Number Munchers

Going back to Number Munchers, an error of 10,000 is huge, especially since the video game didn't use anything over 2 digits for the most part. So, how did I miss something by a factor of 10,000?

Well apparently, I missed the memo that the progression of the Zodiac/Equinox or the Great/Plutonian Year (25,800 years) was different than the time the sun takes to go around the galaxy, a Cosmic Year (225 million years). Given that the Solar system has a diameter of 100,000 light years or something, I guess that these two "years" are different isn't really too much of a surprise. So just because the description sounds like the stars go in a circle doesn't mean those stars or our solar system actually do go in a circle relative to each other. After all, all the stars should be going in about the same direction. Our planet (and perhaps everything else) just jiggles a little. 

NBC News.com

Above we can see our 225 million year path around the center of the galaxy. Apparently, we also go up and down like a roller coaster (every about 63 million years, based on the biodiversity record) due to an uneven distribution of gravity between the solar system and the rest of the galaxy. And below is a graphic showing the little jiggle that causes the progression of the stars, as explained by Sir Isaac Newton and noted in  Voltaire's Letter XVII.

Random Image of the Progression of the Equinox

So what are all the other stars doing while we are going up, down and wobbling all over the place? We don't know. We suspect they're going away from us in an ever expanding universe (?) except for the ones that aren't, which are just the stars that are close by. 

Is what those nearby stars do is of any relevance? What is really happening with the motions of our local star group? Do those motions remain the same? I've got a lot of questions to figure out.

So ultimately, that small misunderstanding of what a Cosmic Year really is (that whole approximate factor of 10,000 thing) lead me to a whole lot more questions. My hope was to find some sort of predictable movement outside the solar system. But instead, it appears the galaxy is a half leavened cake  that is destined to collapse under its own weight before it cools. 

We're left with a cosmic orbit that somehow resembles two squarish coasters stacked one on top another and then twisted so the corners do not match. The orbit is then some sort of elliptical curve that connects the corners of the coasters in directional (assuming two-dimensional top down view) order. The top and bottom coasters then rotate (either together or at different, possibly opposing speeds, IDK) such that the corners of the top coaster are reached three to four times a complete orbit. 

That is to say mass extinctions occur approximately every 63 million year, which we associate with going above (I guess north of) the galactic disk, and we travel around the disk about every 225 million (maybe 250 million, not sure) years. And, on a totally (or at least somewhat) unrelated note, the Earth is a top that has developed a bit of a wobble and is going through its own 25,800 year cycle. And, the classic understanding of "center of gravity" is a little off. That is to say: these very weird things (orbits, years, wobbles, whatever) happen solely because of slight imperfections in the distribution of mass.

So, that's what I learned, today.