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The Sun follows the solar circle (eccentricity e < 0.1) at a speed of about 255 km/s in a clockwise direction when viewed from the galactic north pole at a radius of ≈ 8.34 kpc [4] about the center of the galaxy near Sgr A*, and has only a slight motion, towards the solar apex, relative to the LSR. [5] [6]
The Sun, taking along the whole Solar System, orbits the galaxy's center of mass at an average speed of 230 km/s (828,000 km/h) or 143 mi/s (514,000 mph), [167] taking about 220–250 million Earth years to complete a revolution (a Galactic year), [168] having done so about 20 times since the Sun's formation.
In gravitationally bound systems, the orbital speed of an astronomical body or object (e.g. planet, moon, artificial satellite, spacecraft, or star) is the speed at which it orbits around either the barycenter (the combined center of mass) or, if one body is much more massive than the other bodies of the system combined, its speed relative to the center of mass of the most massive body.
By adopting Einstein synchronization for the clocks, the one-way speed of light becomes equal to the two-way speed of light by definition. [21] [22] The special theory of relativity explores the consequences of this invariance of c with the assumption that the laws of physics are the same in all inertial frames of reference.
This motion is caused by the movement of the stars relative to the Sun and Solar System. The Sun travels in a nearly circular orbit (the solar circle ) about the center of the galaxy at a speed of about 220 km/s at a radius of 8,000 parsecs (26,000 ly) from Sagittarius A* [ 5 ] [ 6 ] which can be taken as the rate of rotation of the Milky Way ...
The Sun is part of one of the Milky Way's outer spiral arms, known as the Orion–Cygnus Arm or Local Spur. [272] [273] It is a member of the thin disk population of stars orbiting close to the galactic plane. [274] Its speed around the center of the Milky Way is about 220 km/s, so that it completes one revolution every 240 million years. [271]
In galactic astronomy, peculiar motion refers to the motion of an object (usually a star) relative to a Galactic rest frame. Local objects are commonly examined as to their vectors of position angle and radial velocity. These can be combined through vector addition to state the object's motion relative to the Sun.
Figure 1: Geometry of the Oort constants derivation, with a field star close to the Sun in the midplane of the Galaxy. Consider a star in the midplane of the Galactic disk with Galactic longitude at a distance from the Sun. Assume that both the star and the Sun have circular orbits around the center of the Galaxy at radii of and from the Galactic Center and rotational velocities of and ...