2024-04-22-Solar-System-&-Galaxy.md

layout	title	subtitle	tags	comments	author
post	Solar System & Galaxy	Orbit of the planets, more accurate	Earth	true	Ethan Siegel

Moreover, as the planets orbit in the plane of the solar system, they change their direction-of-motion continuously, with Earth returning to its starting point after 365 days.  Well, almost to its same exact starting point.

An accurate model of how the planets orbit the Sun, which then moves through the galaxy in a... [+] different direction-of-motion. Note that the planets are all in the same plane, and are not dragging behind the Sun or forming a wake of any type.

Rhys Taylor

Because even the Sun itself isn’t stationary. Our Milky Way galaxy is huge, massive, and most importantly, is in motion. All the stars, planets, gas clouds, dust grains, black holes, dark matter and more move around inside of it, contributing to and affected by its net gravity. From our vantage point, some 25,000 light years from the galactic center, the Sun speeds around in an ellipse, making a complete revolution once every 220–250 million years or so.

It’s estimated that our Sun’s speed is around 200–220 km/s along this journey, which is quite a large number compared both Earth's rotation speed and its speed-of-revolution around the Sun, which are both inclined at an angle to the Sun's plane-of-motion around the galaxy. Throughout it, though, the planets remain in the same plane, with no "dragging" or vortex patterns emerging.

Although the Sun orbits within the plane of the Milky Way some 25,000-27,000 light years from the... [+] center, the orbital directions of the planets in our Solar System do not align with the galaxy at all.

Science Minus Details / http://www.scienceminusdetails.com/