angle of our solar system

[novastef]

Hi,<br />It seems that the combined orbits of the planets around our Sun have a disc-like geometry. Our Galaxy has a similar disc-shape. I suspect but am unsure that the planes of these 2 discs are similar. Are they? Why are they discs? Wouldn't an explosion create globes? Was the initial material spinning? Does anyone know of a good simulator that show how our solar system and the galaxy relate?<br />Thanks!<br />

 

[MeteorWayne]

Welcome to Space.com!!<br /><br />The planes of the galaxy and the solar system are not similar.<br /><br />The disk shape is inevitible, if you look at the physics of how energy is moved around in a protoplanetary or protogalactic disk.<br /><br />If there is any excess of motion in the gas cloud that precedes a galaxy or a star in any direction, even by a tiny amount, a disk will form.<br /><br />The alignment for any specific disk will be a combination of random motion, with perhaps input from the nearby area. In the case of a star or galaxy, that's Verrrrryyyy unlikely, but not impossible.<br /><br />In our case (Solar system and Milky Way), there is no correlation <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[3488]

Yes MeteorWayne is correct.<br /><br />IIRC, our Solar System has a tilt of approx 75 degrees.<br /><br />Viewed from the north (above), our Galaxy rotates Clockwise. <br /><br />Our Solar System takes approx 225 million years to orbit the galactic centre.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[novastef]

Thanks guys! I guess that explains why I see the Milky way pretty much straight overhead in Canada rather than at the horizon? Is the Earth's N-pole facing the centre of our galaxy? I'm afraid I don't have too much spatial RAM...

 

[billslugg]

The center of the Milky Way is in Sagittarius. I believe it is more easily seen from south of the equator. I have read that if you go to Ayers Rock and look at the Milky Way, you can see it as a galaxy. The central bulge, the works. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p> </p> </div>

 

[Boris_Badenov]

Here is an animation of the Solar System as seen on April 18 2002.<br /> The South Pole points in the direction of our rotation around the Galaxy. That is why the Milky Way appears to run generally North to South rather than East to West. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#993300"><span class="body"><font size="2" color="#3366ff"><div align="center">. </div><div align="center">Never roll in the mud with a pig. You'll both get dirty & the pig likes it.</div></font></span></font> </div>

 

[nexium]

The orbits of satellites of Earth are ellipses (or circles) with the mass center at a focus of the ellipse. The satellites are less likely to collide with each other if they are in a narrow disk rather than a polar and semi polar orbit. This is even more so true of our sun, which has nearly all the mass of our solar system, less so true of our galaxy which has mass widely distributed, due we think, to dark matter.<br />In the galaxy (and to a lesser extent in our solar system) sling shot maneuvers = gravity assist maneuvers tend to nudge stuff into the disk shape, when near misses occur. Neil