@scienceluxe

Around The Milky Way Infographic by Roen Kelly (Astronomy) Video via Dr. James O'Donaghue (@physicsJ Twitter, "Interplanetary" on YouTube) [Milky Way - artist impression - we can only see it side-on] The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy around 13.6 billion years old with large pivoting arms stretching out across the cosmos. Looking down on the Milky Way, the Sun is located nearly 27,000 light-years from the center, about halfway between the center and the edge of our disk-shaped galaxy. Looking from the side, the disk is relatively flat and the Sun is currently located about 55 light-years above the plane of the galaxy’s disk. Over time, the Sun orbits the center of the galaxy, sketching out a roughly circular path (again, looking down from above) that takes about 230 million years to complete at a speed of about 230 kilometers per second (less than 0.1% of light speed) The up/down during the orbit (with a period of about 60 million years) happens because we're attracted to other stars (bobbing exaggerated here) The Milky Way is about 100,000 light years across, our solar system is about 26,000 light years from its center and the vertical bobbing up and down is about +200 and –200 light years! With respect to its own axis of rotation, the Sun is moving through the galaxy tipped at an angle of about 60° from the galactic plane. This also applies to the planets orbiting the Sun — just like the disk of our galaxy, if you were to look at our solar system from the side, the planets orbit the Sun in a relatively flat plane. Essentially, the Sun and the plane in which the bodies of the solar system orbit around it are both tilted forward by 60° as they move through the galaxy. Sources: Article by Alison Klesman  https://astronomy.com/magazine/ask-astro/2020/07/in-which-direction-does-the-sun-move-through-the-milky-way https://twitter.com/physicsJ/status/1463896846225395717 . . #scientist #science #spaceship #spaceman #nasa #mars #reelsinstagram #reels #information #interesting #energywork #energy #time #telescope #timedilation #tesla #world #astronomy #astrophysics #quantummechanics #quantum #quantumphysics #universe #universefacts #hubble #galaxies