A: If you imagine 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
.
What is the location of the sun in the Milky Way galaxy?
Our Sun lies
near a small, partial arm called the Orion Arm
, or Orion Spur, located between the Sagittarius and Perseus arms.
Is the sun at the center of Milky Way?
The Sun does not lie near the center of our Galaxy
. It lies about 8 kpc from the center on what is known as the Orion Arm of the Milky Way.
How old is our galaxy?
Astronomers believe that our own Milky Way galaxy is
approximately 13.6 billion years old
. The newest galaxy we know of formed only about 500 million years ago.
Is the Milky Way moving?
The Milky Way itself is moving through the vastness of intergalactic space
. Our galaxy belongs to a cluster of nearby galaxies, the Local Group, and together we are easing toward the center of our cluster at a leisurely 25 miles a second.
Is Sun stationary or rotating?
Yes,
the Sun does spin, or rotate
. Because it is a gas, it does not rotate like a solid. The Sun actually spins faster at its equator than at its poles. The Sun rotates once every 24 days at its equator, but only once every 35 near its poles.
How many galaxies are in space?
Several thousand galaxies, each consisting of billions of stars, are in this small view. XDF (2012) view: Each light speck is a galaxy, some of which are as old as 13.2 billion years – the observable universe is estimated to contain
200 billion to two trillion galaxies
.
Which arm of the Milky Way do we see?
When we look to the edge, we see a spiral arm of the Milky Way known as
the Orion-Cygnus Arm
(or the Orion spur): a river of light across the sky that gave rise to so many ancient myths. The solar system is just on the inner edge of this spiral arm.
What is the oldest thing in the universe?
Astronomers have found the farthest known source of radio emissions in the universe: a galaxy-swallowing supermassive black hole.
How old is our Earth?
Earth is estimated to be
4.54 billion years old
, plus or minus about 50 million years. Scientists have scoured the Earth searching for the oldest rocks to radiometrically date. In northwestern Canada, they discovered rocks about 4.03 billion years old.
How old is space?
Scientists' best estimate is that the universe is
about 13.8 billion years old
.
How fast is the Milky Way Moving per hour?
And how fast is the Milky Way Galaxy moving? The speed turns out to be an astounding
1.3 million miles per hour
(2.1 million km/hr)!
How fast is the Milky Way moving towards Andromeda?
And that's going to happen someday! The Andromeda galaxy is currently racing toward our Milky Way at a speed of
about 70 miles (110 km) per second
. Ultimately, the two galaxies will collide and merge.
How many Milky Ways are there?
All in all, Hubble reveals an estimated 100 billion galaxies in the universe or so, but this number is likely to increase to
about 200 billion
as telescope technology in space improves, Livio told Space.com.
Is sun really stationary?
Yes, the Sun – in fact,
our whole solar system
– orbits around the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. We are moving at an average velocity of 828,000 km/hr. But even at that high rate, it still takes us about 230 million years to make one complete orbit around the Milky Way!
What holds the sun in place?
The sun's gravitational force is very strong. …
The sun's gravity
pulls the planet toward the sun, which changes the straight line of direction into a curve. This keeps the planet moving in an orbit around the sun. Because of the sun's gravitational pull, all the planets in our solar system orbit around it.
