Well, I did some research about this and learned some interesting facts. It turns out that astronomers predict that around the end of 2012, our planet will cross the horizontal plane that divides our galaxy bewteen north and south. This phenomenon happens every 25,000 years. Our planet and solar system travels in a sinosodial path.
The biggest question is what happens when we cross this plane. Most scientists predict that our magnetic poles will flip. This means that the compass will no longer point to north, but south instead. This will probably have devastating effects on our communications technology, as well as natural disasters such as severe weather world-wide, increased volcanic acticity, and earthquakes.
It will take our planet 7 years to cross this plane, which coincidentally matches the 7 years of "hell on earth" detailed in the book of Revelations.
Check out the link below, it shows how close we have come to this galactic central plane, in which we can see (using special filters on camers) the center of our galaxy:
LiveLeak.com - Milky Way Rising from Fort Davis at the Texas Star Party 2009
Scary huh? Well, it might end up as another Y2k fear-for-nothing phenomenon. At least I hope so!