notes – motion of our solar system in our galaxy learning target(s): e5.p1d - describe the...

Notes – Motion Of Our Solar System In Our Galaxy

Learning Target(s):E5.p1D - Describe the position and motion of our solar

system in our galaxy.


Milky Way Galaxy Picture

You Are Here!!!


Each Day We Are On Earth We Travel 1,598,400 Miles

Around The SunThat works out to:

18.5 miles/sec1,110 miles/minute66,600 miles/hour


Each Day We Are On Earth We Travel 24,855 Miles On Our Axis

That works out to:1040 miles/hour

17.3 miles/minute.3 miles/second


The sun is about 26,000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, which is about 100,000 light-

years!


How Far Is This???


5,865,696,000,000 miles/year x 100,000 l.y. =5,865,696,000,000,000,000 (quintillion) miles/year


It takes the sun (and our solar system) roughly 200-250 million years to orbit once around the Milky Way.


In other words, that last time that the Sun was in its current position in space around the Milky Way,

dinosaurs ruled the Earth.


In fact, this Sun orbit has only happened 20.4 times since the Sun itself formed 4.6 billion years ago.


It’s estimated that the Sun will continue fusing hydrogen for another 7 billon years or so. In other words, it only has another 31 orbits it can make before it runs out of

fuel.


In this orbit, we (and the rest of the Solar System) are traveling at a velocity of about 155 miles/sec.

How Far Is This???Hamilton, MI to South Lyon, MI…In 1 Second!!!


Since the Sun is 26,000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way, it has to travel at an astonishing speed of

485,912 mi/hour in a circular orbit around the Milky Way center.

How Fast Is This???You could travel around Earth 19.5 times in an hour!

485,912/24,901 = 19.5 times!!!


Just for comparison, the Earth is rotating at a speed of 1,100 mi/hour, and it’s moving at a speed of 67,108

mi/hour around the Sun.

notes – motion of our solar system in our galaxy learning target(s): e5.p1d - describe the...

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