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How long does it take our solar system to orbit the center of the 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!

The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy. We believe that it consists of a central bulge, 4 major arms, and several shorter arm segments. The Sun (and, of course, the rest of our solar system) is located near the Orion arm, between two major arms (Perseus and Sagittarius). The diameter of the Milky Way is about 100,000 light-years and the Sun is located about 28,000 light-years from the Galactic Centre.

It is interesting to note that recent observations by astronomers suggest that the Milky Way is in fact a “barred spiral galaxy”, not just a spiral galaxy. This means that rather than a simple spherical bulge of gas and stars at its center, it has instead a “bar of stars” crossing the central bulge. 

 

Picture Credit :Google

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