Is the Solar System orbiting the Galactic Centre?
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Q.
Is the Solar System orbiting the Galactic Centre?
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A.
Only vaguely -- its motion has stronger components than that of motion about the Galactic Centre.
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Q.
What do you mean?
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Solar systems at our distance from the Galactic Centre orbit the centre at about 240 km/second. But individual solar-systems may have their own motions through the Oort Soup -- ours is speeding at about 600 km/s towards the constellation Crater.
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What's the Oort Soup?
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It's all the smaller stuff between the stars -- see What is the Oort Soup?.
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Q.
So stars in the Milky Way can be moving quite fast in directions nothing to do with their orbital motion?
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Yes. Star movements are much more chaotic than often assumed.
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Q.
How do we know about our Sun's surge towards the constellation Crater?
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From what's called the CMBR Dipole -- patterns in the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation received on Earth.
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Q.
Where is there more detail on this?
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Go to the Correct-Answer Home Page and List of Questions.