Even Copernicus suggested that the center of the Universe is the Sun, and the Earth is just a planet revolving around it. Today scientists have found out that the center of the Universe does not exist, and all planets, stars and galaxies move and moreover at very high speeds.
Solar System Data
The moon is orbiting at a speed of 1 km per second. The Earth together with the Moon make a complete revolution around the Sun in 365 days at a speed of 108 thousand kilometers per hour or 30 km per second.
More recently, scientists have limited themselves to such data. But with the invention of powerful telescopes, it became clear that the solar system is not limited to just planets. It is much larger and extends over a distance of 100 thousand distances from the Earth to the Sun (astronomical unit). This is the area covered by the gravity of our star. It is named after the astronomer Jan Oort, who proved its existence. The Oort cloud is a world of icy comets that periodically approach the Sun, crossing the Earth's orbit. Only beyond this cloud does the solar system end and interstellar space begins.
Oort also based on the radial velocities and proper motions of stars, substantiated the hypothesis about the motion of the galaxy around its center. Consequently, the Sun and its entire system, as a whole, together with all neighboring stars, moves in the galactic disk around a common center.
Thanks to the development of science, at the disposal of scientists, sufficiently powerful and accurate instruments appeared, with the help of which they came closer and closer to the solution to the structure of the universe. It was possible to find out where the center of the Milky Way visible in the sky is located. He found himself in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius, hidden by dense dark clouds of gas and dust. If there were no these clouds, then a huge blurry white spot would be visible in the night sky, tens of times larger than the Moon and the same luminosity.
Modern refinements
The distance to the center of the galaxy turned out to be greater than expected. 26 thousand light years. This is a huge number. Launched in 1977, the Voyager satellite, which had just left the solar system, would have reached the center of the galaxy in a billion years. Thanks to artificial satellites and mathematical calculations, it was possible to find out the trajectory of the solar system in the galaxy.
Today, the Sun is known to be in a relatively quiet section of the Milky Way between the two large spiral arms of Perseus and Sagittarius and another, slightly smaller arm of Orion. They are all visible in the night sky as foggy streaks. Those further away - the Outer Spiral Arm, the Karin Arm, are visible only with powerful telescopes.
The sun can be said to be lucky that it is located in an area where the influence of neighboring stars is not so great. Being in the spiral arm, perhaps life would never have originated on Earth. Still, the Sun does not move around the center of the galaxy in a straight line. The movement looks like a vortex: over time, it is closer to the sleeves, then further away. And thus it orbits the circumference of the galactic disk along with neighboring stars in 215 million years, at a speed of 230 km per second.
