What is our Solar System's orbital plane around the Milky Way?

[pallidin]

There's still no explanation of why the Milky Way is viewed at a angle in the night sky.

There is nothing to demand that our solar system must revolve in some perfect plane with respect to the center of our galaxy
After all, does our moon do so? No. Does Pluto? No.
Our galaxy, any galaxy, has numerous chaotic irregularites. Nothing special here.

 

[Radrook]

Actually, the sun's motion in its Orion Arm Spur orbit around the central hub is a side to side and up and down one. Horizontal and vertical oscillating one. Presently we are moving toward the hub. Once we reach the inner side of that motion then we will begin our journey away from the hub once more. Whether we are presently in a downward or upward oscillation mode I don't know. But we are considered to be orbiting along the galactic plane as part of the Orion Spiral Arm Spur approx 26 000000 LY from galactic center.

BTW
Spiral galaxies accumulate globular clusters above and below their galactic planes. Andromeda is a good example. So one would assume that globular cluster location would in itself help us determine our galactic plane orientation.

Excerpt:

The galactic plane is inclined by about 60 degrees to the ecliptic (the plane of the Earth's orbit). Relative to the celestial equator, it passes as far north as the constellation of Cassiopeia and as far south as the constellation of Crux, indicating the high inclination of Earth's equatorial plane and the plane of the ecliptic relative to the galactic plane. The north galactic pole is situated at right ascension 12h 49m, declination +27.4° (B1950) near beta Comae Berenices, and the south galactic pole is near alpha Sculptoris.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way

 

[WolverineLV]

Firstly, there is a Galactic Plane. It is defined as the median of the disk. (A median is a standard mathematical tool for "Scatter Plots". There is plenty of data (I know, I have over 100GB of it) to show where about 1 billion of the stars are.

Secondly, we can hardly cross it in 2012, as the Solar system is approximately 20LY above that median plane, at this time.

Thirdly, we do know with great accuracy, the center of mass of the Milky Way. It's roughly where the supermassive black hole sits.

Fourth, the alignment event spoken of has nothing to do with where we are in the plane. It has to do with the alignment of the plane of the (Solar) ecliptic and the line thru the center of the galaxy.

The Solar system crosses the plane of the galaxy, twice per orbit about the Milky way, standard Orbital Mechanics. Since the orbital period is roughly 226,000,000 yrs. This happens approximately once every 113,000,000 yrs.

As far as the orbit of the Solar system coinciding closely with the plane of the galaxy, there has been recent debate, about whether or not the Solar system is actually a member of the Sagittarius Dwarf Eliptical galaxy, which is slowly being swallowed by the Milky Way. The inclination of that orbit may be related to the inclination of the plane of the (Solar) ecliptic, relative to the Milky Way.

Please do some research, before expressing your opinions.

Anthony Fredericks
Amatuer Astronomer
Look for my website "The Universe Project" within the next 2 years.

 

[pallidin]

Interesting read, wolverine.

 

[WolverineLV]

Thanks, Pallidin. A lot of the facts I quoted I looked up while reading. Some were things I remembered from previous research. I have a decent memory for Astronomy facts, it is my avocation, and was my chosen field of study at UC Berkeley.

 

[TuffsNotEnuff]

...Fourth, the alignment event spoken of has nothing to do with where we are in the plane. It has to do with the alignment of the plane of the (Solar) ecliptic and the line thru the center of the galaxy. ...

...Please do some research, before expressing your opinions.

But-but-but Tony, it's the Internet ! (Love your post.)

We can refer people to the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey project and their members. But as much as not, the Internet's a day to day spin-off from "Jackass."

 

[WinstonRiley]

Joel Primack, a leading astrophysicist has a new book out called The New Universe and the Human Future. In it are links to rather cool videos. Here is one that shows the Milky Way as a very small part of the Dark Matter halo around and near it and then beyond http://new-universe.org/zenphoto/Chapter3/Videos/AquariusSimulation_narrated.txt.php.

I thought once I had seen one of the videos that showed our solar system in relation to the spiral of our Milky Way but can't find it now. I wanted to say that I think that the thoughts of Chaos lil bro order are legitimate, given that we can't even yet define what the particles of Dark Matter are composed of.

 

[Flustered]

Can someone explain why the stars in the halo are the oldest, and how come they have random orbits? Shouldn't all the gravity from the galaxy and other stars, slowly pull them into elliptical orbits?

 

[Dotini]

Joel Primack, a leading astrophysicist has a new book out called The New Universe and the Human Future. In it are links to rather cool videos. Here is one that shows the Milky Way as a very small part of the Dark Matter halo around and near it and then beyond http://new-universe.org/zenphoto/Chapter3/Videos/AquariusSimulation_narrated.txt.php.

I thought once I had seen one of the videos that showed our solar system in relation to the spiral of our Milky Way but can't find it now. I wanted to say that I think that the thoughts of Chaos lil bro order are legitimate, given that we can't even yet define what the particles of Dark Matter are composed of.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/news/new-structure.html
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/16mar_theedge/

Here's some fun videos from NASA showing recent new discoveries related to the macro structure of our galaxy. It is my understanding that our solar system is on a ~240 million year orbit passing through each of the spiral arms.

Respectfully sibmittted,
Steve