In our own solar system, both rotation and revolution vectors are highly correlated, for sun, planets and satellites. Just about everything has a right handed spin (counter-clockwise) as viewed from the north. This is a clue as to the nature of the accretion processes in the original solar nebula.

If the connection with galactic rotation is there, evidence must be buried deep in the statistics. It is very hard to determine the rotation vector for a distant star, although we note the spin of binary systems seems to be randomly oriented, even in the neighbors of a star cluster. It appears that even among the stars condensing out of one molecular cloud (an open cluster), the spin axes are randomly distributed. My guess is that there is no connection (for example. our ecliptic and the galactic equator are about 60 degrees apart).

Still, if we had accurate data, some interesting relationships might fall out of the statistics. Keep in mind, even in tightly packed globular clusters where stars interact gravitationally enough that they tend to stratify
by mass (the lighter ones are ejected and the more massive collect in the cores) close encounters where their spin axes might be affected are extremely rare.

Also, star formation is an ongoing process, many stars are as old as the Milky Way itself, but new ones are continuously being born.

The galaxy is not just a big rotating wheel of stars. Its pulsing and evolving, gravitationally, dynamically, chemically, morphologically, even shock waves and acoustic phenomena race each other along the disk, even before you add in the result of its interactions with other galaxies.

It’s alive.

Does the degree of alignment get greater for old stars born at the beginning of the galaxy’s formation?

Or has the stellar billiards game effectively created a random distribution?

After a bit more digging, the truth emerges. The Kepler telescope was originally designed to concentrate its search area in the Cygnus Milky Way, an area where there were lots of stars, and far from the ecliptic where the sun might interfere with its observations.

However, after some mechanical failures with the satellite’s maneuvering gyros, its mission was changed to concentrate on the ecliptic instead, where its reduced pointing capability and its need to orient its solar panels to the sun could both be accommodated in spite of its reduced capabilities. Kepler was tasked to conduct a survey of our ecliptic plane, instead.

So it is not unusual that it has been finding suns whose ecliptics are aligned with Sol, on our ecliptic. Not a coincidence at all.

Observations from the Kepler orbiting telescope have found evidence of a disintegrating planet, discovered by transit observations similar to those used to discover the family of planets around Trappist-1.

The transit evidence means that this star must also have its ecliptic lined up with Sol, because, after all, that is how the transit technique works. There is nothing unusual about this, stars whose planetary orbital planes are aligned with earth are the only ones who can be studied with this technique.

What is really amazing is that this object is also very near OUR ecliptic, in fact, only 1/4 degree (15′) away from it. This is the same synchronicity I discussed in my comments about the Trappist-1 planetary system.

I’m convinced there is no physical reason why this should be so, it is just a coincidence (actually, a second coincidence). But there it is.

For the transit method to work, we have to be on the star’s ecliptic. But there is no physical reason it needs to be on ours. And these two events have been reported only a few days apart.

OOOO-weeeeee-oooooo…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRAPPIST-1

But there is one phenomenal, but completely unexpected coincidence. Like the fact the apparent sizes of the lunar and solar discs are essentially identical (making spectacular solar eclipses possible), this brown dwarf is only 40′ of arc away from our ecliptic. That’s just a little more than one full moon diameter.

We can use the transit technique to detect these planets, which means Sol, as seen from Trappist-1, is on ITS ecliptic plane. An observer on one of these planets would be able to use the transit technique to detect the planets in our solar system, watching them cross in front of the Solar disc.

It has been remarked that stars near our ecliptic plane would be able to use the transit technique to determine our solar system had planets. Assuming the transit technique is favored by alien astronomers to search for planets, it is highly likely if ETI ever calls here, he will probably be from a world near our ecliptic. However, since ecliptic planes are randomly distributed in space, it is highly unlikely we would be able to do the same for any of these worlds. But in this case, by an incredible coincidence, observers in each system would be able to detect planets in the other.

So what physical significance does this have? What does it all mean? Absolutely nothing. Its just a coincidence. But don’t tell Johannes.