As the sun moves across the galaxy

As the sun moves across the galaxy


More Copernicus suggested that the center of the universeis the Sun, and the Earth is just a planet rotating around it. Today, scientists have found that the center of the universe does not exist, and all planets, stars and galaxies move and at very high speeds.



The Place of the Sun in the Milky Way


Data on the Solar System

The moon is moving in orbit at a speed of 1 km ingive me a sec. The Earth, along with the Moon, makes a full revolution around the Sun in 365 days at a speed of 108 thousand kilometers per hour or 30 km per second. Until quite recently, scientists have confined themselves to such data. But with the invention of powerful telescopes, it turned out that the solar system is not limited to only planets. It is much larger and extends over a distance of 100 thousand distances from the Earth to the Sun (astronomical unit). This is an area that embraces the attraction of our star. It is named in honor of the scientist-astronomer Jan Oort, who proved its existence. Oort Cloud is the world of ice comets, periodically approaching the Sun crossing the Earth's orbit. Only outside this cloud, the solar system ends and interstellar space begins. Oort also based on the radial velocities and proper motions of the stars, substantiated the hypothesis about the motion of the galaxy around its center. Consequently, the Sun and its entire system, as a whole, together with all the neighboring stars, moves in the galactic disk around the common center. Thanks to the development of science, powerful and accurate instruments appeared with the help of scientists, with the help of which they came closer and closer to unraveling the device of the universe. It was possible to find out where the center of the visible Milky Way sky is located. He was in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius, hidden by dense dark clouds of gas and dust. If there were not these clouds, then in the night sky would be seen a huge blurry white spot, larger than the Moon in dozens of times and the same luminosity.

Modern specifications

The distance to the center of the galaxy was greater,than expected. 26 thousand light years. This is a huge number. Launched in 1977, the satellite Voyager, only now leaving the solar system, would reach the center of the galaxy in a billion years. Thanks to artificial satellites and mathematical calculations, it was possible to find out the trajectory of the motion of the solar system in the galaxy. Today it is known that the Sun is in a relatively quiet area of ​​the Milky Way between the two large spiral arms of Perseus and Sagittarius and another, slightly smaller Orion sleeve. All of them are visible in the night sky, like foggy bands. Those that are next - The outer spiral sleeve, Karin's sleeve, are visible only in powerful telescopes. To the sun, it can be said fortunate that it is located on a site where the influence of neighboring stars is not so great. Being in a spiral sleeve, perhaps life would not have arisen on Earth. But still the Sun moves around the center of the galaxy not in a straight line. The movement looks like a whirlwind: it is eventually closer to the sleeves, then farther. And thus it flies around the circumference of the galactic disk along with neighboring stars for 215 million years, at a speed of 230 km per second.