• A cosmic year is approximately 225-250 million years, so roughly how far are we currently through this orbit?

    A cosmic year is approximately 225-250 million years, so roughly how far are we currently through this orbit?
    A cosmic year is approximately 225-250 million years, so roughly how far are we currently through this orbit?
    A cosmic year is approximately 225-250 million years, so roughly how far are we currently through this orbit?

    A cosmic year is approximately 225-250 million years, so roughly how far are we currently through this orbit?

    It is very difficult to appreciate how long of a time a cosmic year is.

    It takes our solar system approximately 225 million years to complete one full orbit around the galactic center.

    This colossal timeframe, dwarfed only by the age of the universe itself, makes a single human lifetime seem like less than a blink of an eye.

    We’re cruising through the cosmos at a breakneck speed of roughly 230 kilometers per second, but the Milky Way is so mind-boggingly vast that we’ve barely made a dent in our galactic lap.

    Astronomers estimate the age of our solar system to be around 4.6 billion years, a mere 20 or so cosmic years.

    Early Solar System, some 4.6 eons ago.

    That means we’ve orbited the Milky Way’s center only a handful of times since our humble beginnings.

    If you’re picturing a neat, circular racetrack, forget it.

    Our solar system’s path around the galactic center is more like a drunken stumble, a wobbly, elliptical orbit that takes us above and below the galactic plane.

    We’re not sure how many cosmic laps we’ve completed, as our galaxy’s structure and our place within it are still under intense scrutiny by astronomers. Although many believe we are in the 21st cosmic year.

    Understand, we’re still cosmic toddlers, just beginning to explore our galactic neighborhood.

    Not even old enough to drink in cosmic years (if that were a thing, which it’s not, because, you know, space).

    But, who’s counting?

    We’ve got plenty of time to enjoy the ride.

    Just try not to think about the fact that by the time we complete another cosmic year, humanity might be long gone, replaced by sentient cockroaches or something equally horrifying.

    That’s the beauty of the cosmos though.

    It’s vast, mysterious, and utterly indifferent to our existence.

  • Tâm Lê
    Tâm Lê @tamle

    In this orbiting the milky way , Kuiper belt , Oort cloud, Alpha Centauri system, Orion constellation ,Sirius and other nearby stars and constellations included ? OR ,Is it just solar system alone orbiting the galaxy in its own way and time and others in their own way and time ? Pliz ,expecting an answer.

    • 0
  • Ngọc Lương
    Ngọc Lương @ngocluong

    All of what you mentioned is also orbiting the galactic center in the same general direction as our solar system is going, but maybe not at the same rate of speed. Parts of our solar system like the Oort Cloud and the Kuiper Belt are gravitationally bound to the Sun, so they travel right along with us. Other stars( and constellations which of course are made up of stars) may or may not be gravitationally affected by our Sun or rather our Sun affected by them. I'm pretty sure scientists have determined that even over the last few thousand years of human observation the stars that make up constellations have moved slightly relative to one another and to us. Perhaps even as little as 10,000 years ago some constellations hay have looked quite different from now if not even unrecognizable, and the same may be true in as little as 10,000 years in the future.

    • 0
  • Tuấn Lê
    Tuấn Lê @tuanle

    I'm waiting for handyman bakodave to make some goofy comment about sentient cockroaches being republican senators or something. Believe it or not.

    • 0
  • Thị Phương Công
    Thị Phương Công @thiphuongcong

    A cosmic year, also known as a galactic year, is the amount of time it takes for the Sun to complete one orbit around the center of the Milky Way galaxy. This period is estimated to be about 225-250 million years.

    Given that the current date is 2024 and my last knowledge update was in September 2021, I do not have the exact figure for the current position of the Sun in its galactic orbit. However, if we assume a rough estimate of 250 million years for a cosmic year, and considering that the Sun is believed to be about 4.6 billion years old, we can make a rough calculation.

    If the Sun is approximately 4.6 billion years old and one cosmic year is around 250 million years, then we can estimate that the Sun is around 18-20 cosmic years old. Therefore, we could roughly say that we are about 1/18 to 1/20 of the way through the current cosmic year.

    Please note that this is a very rough estimation and the actual position of the Sun in its galactic orbit may vary.

    • 0