Planet Earth Solar System Milky Way Galaxy
Orbit of the solar system.
Planet earth solar system milky way galaxy. Let s look at the basics. It s a small part of the milky way galaxy. Earth is well equipped as a planet and ideally placed in our solar system and galaxy to support life as we know it. Our milky way galaxy is just one of billions of galaxies in the universe.
The average diameter of the orbit of the solar system relative to the galactic center. One orbital period of the solar system lasts between 225 and 250 million years. We live on a planet called earth that is part of our solar system. 14 15 the nearest exoplanets are located 4 2 light years 1 3 parsecs from earth and orbit proxima centauri the closest star to the sun.
The artist s concept also includes a new spiral arm called the far 3 kiloparsec arm discovered via a radio telescope survey of gas in the milky way. A galaxy is a huge collection of gas dust and billions of stars and their solar systems. It was only after many centuries. Many people are not clear about the difference between our solar system our milky way galaxy and the universe.
In galaxies the solar systems are separated by vast sections of mostly empty space. Within it there are at least 100 billion stars and on average each star has at least one planet orbiting it. The product of some 4 6 billion years of cosmic construction our planet is. The galaxy that contains the earth and its solar system is called the milky way.
Galaxies like solar systems are held together by gravity. Our galaxy the milky way also has a supermassive black hole in the middle. The sun s orbital radius is roughly 8 600 parsecs or slightly over half way to the galactic edge. There is evidence that extragalactic planets exoplanets farther away in galaxies beyond the local milky way galaxy may exist.
The milky way galaxy the major arms consist of the highest densities of both young and old stars. Our solar system consists of our star the sun and its orbiting planets including earth along with numerous moons asteroids comet material rocks and dust our sun is just one star among the hundreds of billions of stars in our milky way galaxy. This galaxy is thought to contain more than 200 billion different. The first two are easy to grasp but.
Earth the solar system oort cloud local fluff local bubble orion arm milky way galaxy local group virgo supercluster laniakea supercluster universe. Fact that earth based observations were complicated by the fact that the earth is embedded in the solar system. A galaxy is a system of solar systems and other stars. But where is our solar system.
The minor arms are primarily filled with gas and pockets of star forming activity.