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Location of the solar system in the Milky Way galaxy. Where are we going

Any person, even lying on the couch or sitting near the computer, is in constant motion. This continuous movement in outer space has a variety of directions and tremendous speeds. First of all, the Earth moves around its axis. In addition, the planet revolves around the sun. But that's not all. Much more impressive distances we overcome together with the solar system.

Location of the solar system

The sun is one of the stars in the plane of the Milky Way, or simply the Galaxy. It is 8 kpc away from the center, and the distance from the plane of the Galaxy is 25 pc. The stellar density in our region of the Galaxy is approximately 0.12 stars per 1 pc3. The position of the solar system is not constant: it is in constant motion relative to nearby stars, interstellar gas, and finally around the center of the Milky Way. The movement of the solar system in the galaxy was first noticed by William Herschel.

Movement relative to nearby stars

The speed of movement of the Sun to the border of the constellations Hercules and Lyra is 4 a.s. per year, or 20 km/s. The velocity vector is directed towards the so-called apex - a point to which the movement of other nearby stars is also directed. Directions of velocities of stars, incl. The suns intersect at the point opposite to the apex, called the anti-apex.

Moving relative to visible stars

Separately, the movement of the Sun in relation to bright stars that can be seen without a telescope is measured. This is an indicator of the standard movement of the Sun. The speed of such movement is 3 AU. per year or 15 km/s.

Movement relative to interstellar space

In relation to interstellar space, the solar system is already moving faster, the speed is 22-25 km / s. At the same time, under the influence of the "interstellar wind", which "blowing" from the southern region of the Galaxy, the apex shifts to the constellation Ophiuchus. The shift is estimated at about 50.

Moving around the center of the Milky Way

The solar system is in motion relative to the center of our galaxy. It moves towards the constellation Cygnus. The speed is about 40 AU. per year, or 200 km/s. It takes 220 million years for a complete revolution. It is impossible to determine the exact speed, because the apex (the center of the Galaxy) is hidden from us behind dense clouds of interstellar dust. The apex shifts 1.5° every million years, and completes a full circle in 250 million years, or 1 "galactic year.

Journey to the edge of the Milky Way

Movement of the Galaxy in outer space

Our Galaxy also does not stand still, but approaches the Andromeda galaxy at a speed of 100-150 km/s. A group of galaxies, which includes the Milky Way, is moving towards the large cluster of Virgo at a speed of 400 km/s. It is difficult to imagine, and even more difficult to calculate, how far we move every second. These distances are huge, and the errors in such calculations are still quite large.

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You are sitting, standing or lying down reading this article, and you do not feel that the Earth is rotating around its axis at a breakneck speed - about 1,700 km / h at the equator. However, the rotation speed doesn't seem all that fast when converted to km/s. It turns out 0.5 km / s - a barely noticeable flash on the radar, in comparison with other speeds around us.

Just like other planets in the solar system, the Earth revolves around the Sun. And in order to stay in its orbit, it moves at a speed of 30 km / s. Venus and Mercury, which are closer to the Sun, move faster, Mars, whose orbit passes the orbit of the Earth, moves much more slowly.

But even the Sun does not stand in one place. Our Milky Way galaxy is huge, massive and also mobile! All stars, planets, gas clouds, dust particles, black holes, dark matter - all this moves relative to a common center of mass.

According to scientists, the Sun is located at a distance of 25,000 light-years from the center of our galaxy and moves in an elliptical orbit, making a complete revolution every 220-250 million years. It turns out that the speed of the Sun is about 200-220 km / s, which is hundreds of times higher than the speed of the Earth around its axis and tens of times higher than the speed of its movement around the Sun. This is what the movement of our solar system looks like.

Is the galaxy stationary? Again no. Giant space objects have a large mass, and therefore, create strong gravitational fields. Give the Universe a little time (and we had it - about 13.8 billion years), and everything will start moving in the direction of the greatest attraction. That is why the Universe is not homogeneous, but consists of galaxies and groups of galaxies.

What does this mean for us?

This means that the Milky Way is pulled towards itself by other galaxies and groups of galaxies located nearby. This means that massive objects dominate this process. And this means that not only our galaxy, but also all those around us are influenced by these "tractors". We are getting closer to understanding what happens to us in outer space, but we still lack facts, for example:

  • what were the initial conditions under which the universe was born;
  • how the various masses in the galaxy move and change over time;
  • how the Milky Way and surrounding galaxies and clusters formed;
  • and how it is happening now.

However, there is a trick that will help us figure it out.

The universe is filled with cosmic microwave background radiation with a temperature of 2.725 K, which has been preserved since the time of the Big Bang. In some places there are tiny deviations - about 100 μK, but the general temperature background is constant.

This is because the universe was formed in the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago and is still expanding and cooling.

380,000 years after the Big Bang, the universe cooled to such a temperature that it became possible to form hydrogen atoms. Prior to this, photons constantly interacted with the rest of the plasma particles: they collided with them and exchanged energy. As the universe cools, there are fewer charged particles, and more space between them. Photons were able to move freely in space. Relic radiation is photons that were emitted by the plasma towards the future location of the Earth, but avoided scattering, since recombination has already begun. They reach the Earth through the space of the Universe, which continues to expand.

You can "see" this radiation yourself. The interference that occurs on an empty TV channel if you use a simple bunny-ear antenna is 1% due to CMB.

And yet the temperature of the background background is not the same in all directions. According to the results of the Planck mission research, the temperature differs somewhat in the opposite hemispheres of the celestial sphere: it is slightly higher in the areas of the sky south of the ecliptic - about 2.728 K, and lower in the other half - about 2.722 K.


Microwave background map made with the Planck telescope.

This difference is almost 100 times greater than the rest of the observed CMB temperature fluctuations, and this is misleading. Why it happens? The answer is obvious - this difference is not due to fluctuations in the background radiation, it appears because there is movement!

When you approach a light source or it approaches you, the spectral lines in the spectrum of the source shift towards short waves (violet shift), when you move away from it or it moves away from you, the spectral lines shift towards long waves (red shift).

The relic radiation cannot be more or less energetic, which means we are moving through space. The Doppler effect helps to determine that our solar system is moving relative to the CMB at a speed of 368 ± 2 km/s, and the local group of galaxies, including the Milky Way, the Andromeda Galaxy and the Triangulum Galaxy, is moving at a speed of 627 ± 22 km/s relative to the CMB. These are the so-called peculiar velocities of galaxies, which are several hundred km/s. In addition to them, there are also cosmological velocities due to the expansion of the Universe and calculated according to the Hubble law.

Thanks to the residual radiation from the Big Bang, we can observe that everything in the universe is constantly moving and changing. And our galaxy is only a part of this process.

There is no such thing in life as eternal peace of mind. Life itself is a movement, and cannot exist without desires, fear, and feelings.
Thomas Hobbs

The reader asks:
I found a video on YouTube with a theory about the spiral movement of the solar system through our galaxy. It didn't strike me as convincing, but I'd like to hear it from you. Is it scientifically correct?

Let's watch the video first:

Some of the statements in this video are true. For example:

  • planets revolve around the sun in approximately the same plane
  • The solar system moves through the galaxy with a 60° angle between the galactic plane and the planetary rotation plane
  • The sun, during its rotation around the Milky Way, moves up and down and in and out in relation to the rest of the galaxy

All this is true, but at the same time in the video all these facts are shown incorrectly.

It is known that the planets move around the Sun in ellipses, according to the laws of Kepler, Newton and Einstein. But the picture on the left is wrong in terms of scale. It is incorrect in terms of shapes, sizes and eccentricities. While the orbits on the right are less like ellipses in the diagram on the right, the orbits of the planets look something like this in terms of scale.

Let's take another example - the orbit of the moon.

It is known that the Moon revolves around the Earth with a period of just under a month, and the Earth revolves around the Sun with a period of 12 months. Which of the following pictures best demonstrates the movement of the Moon around the Sun? If we compare the distances from the Sun to the Earth and from the Earth to the Moon, as well as the speed of rotation of the Moon around the Earth, and the Earth / Moon system around the Sun, it turns out that option D demonstrates the best situation. They can be exaggerated to achieve some effects , but variants A, B and C are quantitatively incorrect.

Now let's move on to the movement of the solar system through the galaxy.

How many inaccuracies does it contain. First, all the planets at any given time are in the same plane. There is no lag that the planets more distant from the Sun would show in relation to the less distant ones.

Secondly, let's remember the real speeds of the planets. Mercury moves in our system faster than all the others, revolving around the Sun at a speed of 47 km / s. This is 60% faster than the orbital speed of the Earth, about 4 times faster than Jupiter, and 9 times faster than Neptune, which orbits at a speed of 5.4 km / s. And the Sun flies through the galaxy at a speed of 220 km/s.

In the time it takes Mercury to make one revolution, the entire solar system travels 1.7 billion kilometers in its intragalactic elliptical orbit. At the same time, the radius of Mercury's orbit is only 58 million kilometers, or only 3.4% of the distance that the entire solar system is advancing.

If we were to build the movement of the solar system through the galaxy on a scale, and look at how the planets move, we would see the following:

Imagine that the whole system - the Sun, the moon, all the planets, asteroids, comets - move at a high speed at an angle of about 60° relative to the plane of the solar system. Something like this:

Putting it all together, we get a more accurate picture:

What about precession? And what about the up-down and in-out vibrations? All this is true, but the video shows it in an overly exaggerated and misinterpreted way.

Indeed, the precession of the solar system occurs with a period of 26,000 years. But there is no spiral movement, neither in the Sun nor in the planets. The precession is carried out not by the orbits of the planets, but by the axis of rotation of the Earth.

The North Star is not permanently located directly above the North Pole. Most of the time we don't have a polar star. 3000 years ago, Kochab was closer to the pole than the North Star. In 5500 years, Alderamin will become the polar star. And in 12,000 years, Vega, the second brightest star in the Northern Hemisphere, will be only 2 degrees from the pole. But it is this that changes with a frequency of once every 26,000 years, and not the movement of the Sun or planets.

How about solar wind?

It's radiation coming from the Sun (and all the stars), not something we bump into as we move through the galaxy. Hot stars emit fast-moving charged particles. The boundary of the solar system passes where the solar wind no longer has the ability to repel the interstellar medium. There is the boundary of the heliosphere.

Now about moving up and down and in and out in relation to the galaxy.

Since the Sun and the Solar System are subject to gravity, it is she who dominates their movement. Now the Sun is located at a distance of 25-27 thousand light years from the center of the galaxy, and moves around it in an ellipse. At the same time, all other stars, gas, dust, move around the galaxy also along ellipses. And the ellipse of the Sun is different from all the others.

With a period of 220 million years, the Sun makes a complete revolution around the galaxy, passing slightly above and below the center of the galactic plane. But since the rest of the matter in the galaxy moves in the same way, the orientation of the galactic plane changes over time. We can move in an ellipse, but the galaxy is a rotating dish, so we move up and down it with a period of 63 million years, although our movement in and out occurs with a period of 220 million years.

But they do not make any “corkscrew” of the planet, their movement is distorted beyond recognition, the video incorrectly talks about precession and the solar wind, and the text is full of errors. The simulation is done very nicely, but it would be much prettier if it was right.

Where are you flying - Red Sun Where are you taking us with you? - It seems to be quite a simple question, which even a high school student can answer. However, if we look at this problem from the standpoint of the cosmological views of the Secret Doctrine of the East, then the answer to this seemingly easy question for a modern educated person will most likely turn out to be far from being so simple and obvious. The reader probably already guessed that the topic of this essay will be devoted to the galactic orbit of our solar system. Following our tradition, we will try to consider this issue, both from a scientific point of view, and from the positions of the Theosophical Doctrine and the Teachings of Agni Yogi.

I would like to say the following in advance. To date, there is very little cosmological information on these issues, both of a scientific nature and especially of an esoteric nature. Therefore, the main result of our consideration can only be a statement of the coincidence or divergence of views on a number of fundamental points of this subject.

We remind our readers that if within the solar system the main unit of measurement of the distances of celestial bodies from each other was an astronomical unit ( a.u.), equal to the average distance of the Earth from the Sun (approximately 150 million km.), then in the stellar and galactic spaces, other units of measurement of distances are already used. The most commonly used units are the light year (the distance traveled by light in one Earth year) equal to 9.46 trillion km, and parsec (pc) - 3,262 light year. It should also be noted that determining the external dimensions of a galaxy while inside it is a very difficult matter. Therefore, the values ​​of the parameters of our galaxy given below are only indicative.

Before considering where and how the solar system flies in galactic space, we will very briefly talk about our native galaxy called - Milky Way .


Milky Way - a typical medium-sized spiral galaxy with a pronounced central bar. The disk diameter of a galaxy is about 100 000 light years (st. g.). The sun is located almost in the plane of the disk at an average distance of 26 000 +/- 1400 sv.g. from the center of the galactic nucleus. It is generally accepted that the thickness of the galactic disk in the region of the Sun is about 1000 St. d. However, some researchers believe that this parameter can reach and 2000 — 3000 sv.g. The number of stars that make up the Milky Way, according to various estimates, ranges from 200 before 400 billion. Near the plane of the disk, young stars and star clusters are concentrated, the age of which does not exceed several billion years. They form the so-called flat component. There are a lot of bright and hot stars among them. The gas in the disk of the Galaxy is also concentrated mainly near its plane.

All four main spiral arms of the galaxy (arms Perseus, Sagittarius, Centauri And swan) are located in the plane of the galactic disk. The solar system is inside a small arm Orion, which has a length of about 11000 St. g. and diameter order 3500 St. d. Sometimes this arm is also called the Local Arm or Orion's Spur. The Orion Arm owes its name to the nearby stars in the Orion Constellation. It is located between the Sagittarius arm and the Perseus arm. In the Orion arm, the solar system is located near its inner edge.

Interestingly, the spiral arms of the galaxy rotate as a whole, with the same angular velocity. At a certain distance from the center of the galaxy, the speed of rotation of the arms practically coincides with the speed of rotation of the matter in the disk of the galaxy. The zone in which the coincidence of angular velocities is observed is a narrow ring, or rather, a torus with a radius of the order 250 parsec. This ring-shaped region around the center of the galaxy is called corotation zones(joint rotation).

According to scientists, it is in this corotation zone that our solar system is currently located. Why is this area interesting for us? Without going into too much detail, let us just say that the presence of the Sun in this narrow zone gives it very calm and comfortable conditions for stellar evolution. And this, in turn, as some scientists believe, provides favorable opportunities for the development of biological life forms on the planets. Such a special arrangement of star systems in this zone gives more chances for the development of life. Therefore, the corotation zone is sometimes called the galactic belt of life. It is assumed that similar corotation zones should also be present in other spiral galaxies.

At present, the Sun, together with our system of planets, is located on the outskirts of the Orion arm between the main spiral arms of Perseus and Sagittarius and is slowly moving towards the Perseus arm. According to calculations, the Sun will be able to reach the Perseus arm in a few billion years.

What does science say about the trajectory of the Sun in the Milky Way galaxy?

There is no unequivocal opinion on this issue, but most scientists believe that the Sun moves around the center of our galaxy in a slightly elliptical orbit, very slowly but regularly crossing the galactic arms. However, some researchers believe that the Sun's orbit may be a rather elongated ellipse.

It is also believed that at this epoch, the Sun is in the northern part of the galaxy at a distance 20-25 parsec from the plane of the galactic disk. The sun moves in the direction of the galactic disk and the angle between the plane of the ecliptic of the solar system and the plane of the galactic disk is about 30 deg. Below is a conditional diagram of the relative orientation of the ecliptic plane and the galactic disk.

In addition to moving in an ellipse around the core of the galaxy The solar system also performs harmonic undulating vertical oscillations relative to the galactic plane, crossing it every 30-35 million years and ending up in the northern, then in the southern galactic hemisphere. According to the calculations of some researchers, the Sun crosses the galactic disk every 20-25 million years.

The values ​​of the maximum rise of the Sun above the galactic disk in the northern and southern hemispheres of the galaxy can be approximately 50-80 parsec. More accurate data on the periodic "diving" of the Sun, scientists can not yet provide. It must be said that the laws of celestial mechanics, in principle, do not reject the possibility of the existence of this kind of harmonic motions and even make it possible to calculate the trajectory.

However, it is quite possible that such a diving motion may be an ordinary elongated spiral. After all in fact, in space, all celestial bodies move precisely in spirals . And thought - the originator of all Existing, also flies in its spiral . We will talk about the spirals of the solar orbit in the second part of our essay, and now we will return to the consideration of the orbital motion of the Sun.

The question of measuring the speed of the Sun is inextricably linked with the choice of a reference system. The solar system is in constant motion relative to nearby stars, interstellar gas and the center of the Milky Way. The movement of the solar system in our galaxy was first noticed by William Herschel.

It is now established that all stars except general portable movement around the center of the galaxy have more individual, the so-called peculiar movement. The movement of the Sun towards the border of the constellations Hercules And Lyra- eat peculiar movement, and movement in the direction of the constellation swan – portable,general with other nearby stars orbiting the galactic core.

It is generally accepted that the speed of the peculiar motion of the sun is about 20 km / s, and this movement is directed towards the so-called apex - a point to which the movement of other nearby stars is also directed. The speed of the portable or general movement around the center of the galaxy in the direction of the constellation Cygnus is much greater and, according to various estimates, is 180 — 255 km/s.

Due to such a significant spread in the velocities of the general movement the duration of one revolution of the solar system along a wavy trajectory around the center of the Milky Way (galactic year) can also be, according to different data, from 180 before 270 million years. Let's remember these values ​​for further consideration.

So, according to available scientific data, our solar system is currently located in the northern hemisphere of the Milky Way and is moving at an angle of 30 deg. to the galactic disk at an average speed of about 220 km/s The elevation from the plane of the galactic disk is approximately 20-25 parsec. It has already been pointed out earlier that the thickness of the galactic disk in the region of the Sun's orbit is approximately equal to 1000 St. G.

Knowing the thickness of the disk, the magnitude of the elevation of the Sun above the disk, the speed and angle of entry of the Sun into the disk, it is possible to determine the time after which we will enter the galactic disk and leave it already in the southern hemisphere of the Milky Way. Having made these simple calculations, we get that approximately after 220 000 years, the solar system will enter the plane of the galactic disk and after another 2.7 million. years will come out of it. In this way, in about 3 million years, our Sun and our Earth will already be in the southern hemisphere of the Milky Way. Of course, the value of the thickness of the galactic disk chosen by us for calculation can vary within very wide limits, and therefore the calculations are only an estimate.

So, if the scientific evidence we now have is correct, then the people of the end 6 th Root Race and 7 The th Race of the Earth will already live in the new conditions of the southern hemisphere of the galaxy.

Let us now turn to the cosmological records of H.I. Roerich in 1940-1950.

Brief references to the galactic orbit of the Sun can be found in the essay by H.I. Roerich "Conversations with the Teacher", chapter "The sun"(zh. "New Epoch", No. 1/20, 1999). Despite the fact that only a few lines are devoted to this topic, the information contained in these entries is of great interest. Speaking about the peculiarities of our solar system, the Teacher reports the following.

“Our Solar System manifests one of the varieties among the groupings of spatial bodies around one body – the Sun. Our solar system is different from other systems. Our System is definitely delineated by the planets clearly going around our Sun. But this definition is not precise. The system is determined or outlined not only by the mechanics of the planets around the sun, but clearly also by the solar orbit - this orbit is colossal. But still it is like an atom in the visible Cosmos.

Our Astronomy differs from the modern one. The ardent path of the Sun has not yet been calculated by astronomers. A full circle of the ellipse will take at least a billion years.” .

We draw attention to a very important point. Unlike modern astronomy The Astronomy of the Secret Knowledge defines the boundaries of the solar system not only by the orbits of the distant outer planets revolving around the Sun, but also by the solar orbit itself, which runs around the center of our galaxy. In addition, it is indicated that one revolution around the center of the galaxy, the Sun travels in an ellipse in at least a billion (billion) years . Recall that according to modern scientific data, the Sun makes its revolution around the nucleus of the galaxy in just 180 – 270 million years. We will discuss the possible reasons for such strong discrepancies in the lengths of the galactic year in the second part of the essay. Further, Helena Roerich writes.

“The speed of the passage of the Sun is much faster than the speed of the Earth along its ellipse. The speed of the Sun is many times greater than the speed of Jupiter. But the speed of the Sun is hardly noticeable because of the ardent relative speed of the Zodiac. .

These lines allow us to conclude that in the matter of estimating the velocities of the general motion of the Sun around the center of the galaxy and the peculiar (proper) motion relative to the nearest stars, between modern science and the Secret Knowledge there is full agreement. Indeed, if the speed of the total orbital motion of the Sun is within 180 – 255 km/sec., then the average velocity of the Earth along the ellipse of its orbit is only 30 km / sec., and Jupiter is even less - 13 km/s However, the intrinsic (peculiar) velocity of the Sun relative to the bright stars of the zodiacal belt and nearby stars is only 20 km/s Therefore, relative to the Zodiac, the movement of the Sun is hardly noticeable.

“The sun will leave the belt of the Zodiac and appear on a new belt of constellations beyond the Milky Way. The Milky Way is not only a ring, but a new atmosphere. The Sun will acclimate to the new atmosphere as it passes through the ring of the Milky Way. It is not only immeasurably deep, but it seems to be bottomless to the earthly consciousness. The Zodiac lies at the limit of the Ring of the Milky Way.

The bright Sun rushes along its orbit, heading for the constellation Hercules. On its way, it will cross the ring of the Milky Way and vehemently step out of it. .

Center of the Milky Way (side view)

It is obvious that the meaning of the last fragment of the records coincides in almost everything with the data of astronomical science of our days about the movement of the Sun relative to the galactic disk, which is referred to in the records as « Milky Way Ring «. After all, in fact, it is said that over time, due to its movement, the Sun will leave this galactic hemisphere and, having passed the galactic disk - the Ring of the Milky Way, will settle in the other hemisphere of the galaxy. Naturally, there will already be other stars around the ecliptic, forming a new zodiacal belt.

Moreover, indeed "atmosphere" of the galactic disk significantly differs upwards in the density of galactic matter, compared with the density of matter in the space where we are now. Therefore, the Sun and our entire planetary system will be forced to adapt to the existence in new, probably more severe space conditions.

The sun will cross the galactic disk ( "ring of the Milky Way" ) and rises significantly above its plane ( "violently go beyond it" ). This line of records can probably be considered as some indirect confirmation of the fact that our solar system moves around the center of the galaxy along a wavy or spiral trajectory, periodically “diving” into one or the other galactic hemisphere. Although the recordings, of course, do not give unambiguous confirmation of this fact. It is possible that the trajectory of the Sun's motion around the center of the galaxy may not be a wavy, but a smooth ellipse, but inclined at a significant angle to the plane of the galactic disk. Then the number of intersections of the disk plane will be equal to two (ascending and descending nodes of the orbit).

So, we see that in their qualitative respect, the ideas of modern science about the galactic motion of the Sun coincide very closely with the position of Esoteric Astronomy on this issue.. However, there are serious discrepancies in the estimates of the duration of the galactic year and in the determination of the spatial outlines of the solar system. Recall that according to various scientific data, the galactic year is equal to 180 - 270 million years, while Cosmological records state that the Sun passes its ellipse in at least billion years.

In our assessments and considerations, of course, we proceed from the prerequisites that modern science is just beginning its path of cognition of the Cosmos, while the Great Cosmic Teachers, who are now heading the evolution of stars, planets and mankind, have long passed this initial path of Knowledge. Therefore, it would be simply unreasonable to dispute Their claims. Then what are the possible reasons for such discrepancies? This is exactly what we are going to talk about.

Since ancient times, mankind has been interested in the visible movements of celestial bodies: the Sun, Moon and stars. It's hard to imagine Our own solar system seems too big, stretching over 4 trillion miles from the Sun. Meanwhile, the Sun is only one hundredth of a billion from other stars that make up the Milky Way galaxy.

Milky Way

The galaxy itself is a huge wheel that rotates, from gas, dust and more than 200 billion stars. There are trillions of miles of empty space between them. The sun is anchored on the outskirts of the galaxy, shaped like a spiral: from above, the Milky Way looks like a huge rotating hurricane of stars. Compared to the size of a galaxy, the solar system is extremely small. If we imagine that the Milky Way is the size of Europa, then the solar system will be no larger in size than a walnut.

solar system

The sun and its 9 planets - satellites are scattered in one direction from the center of the galaxy. Just as planets revolve around their stars, so do stars revolve around galaxies.

It will take the sun about 200 million years at 588,000 miles per hour to make a full circle around this galactic carousel. Nothing special about our Sun differs from other stars, except that it has a satellite, a planet called Earth, inhabited by life. Planets and smaller celestial bodies called asteroids revolve around the Sun in their orbits.

The first observations of the luminaries

Man has been observing the visible movements of celestial bodies and cosmic phenomena for at least 10,000 years. For the first time, records in the annals of celestial bodies appeared in ancient Egypt and Sumer. The Egyptians were able to distinguish three types of bodies in the sky: stars, planets and "stars with tails". At the same time, celestial bodies were discovered: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury and, of course, the Sun and the Moon. The visible movements of celestial bodies are the movement of these objects contemplated from the Earth relative to the coordinate system, regardless of the daily rotation. The real movement is their movement in outer space, determined by the forces acting on these bodies.

Visible galaxies

Looking at the night sky, you can see our nearest neighbor - - in the form of a spiral. The Milky Way, despite its size, is just one of 100 billion galaxies in space. Without using a telescope, you can see three galaxies and part of ours. Two of them are called the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. They were first seen in southern waters in 1519 by the expedition of the Portuguese explorer Magellan. These small galaxies orbit the Milky Way and are therefore our closest space neighbors.

The third galaxy visible from Earth, Andromeda, is about 2 million light-years distant from us. This means that Andromeda's starlight takes millions of years to get closer to our Earth. Thus, we contemplate this galaxy as it was 2 million years ago.

In addition to these three galaxies, at night you can see a part of the Milky Way, represented by many stars. According to the ancient Greeks, this group of stars is milk from the breast of the goddess Hera, hence the name.

Visible planets from Earth

Planets are celestial bodies that revolve around the sun. When we observe Venus glowing in the sky, this is due to the fact that it is illuminated by the Sun and beats off part of the sunlight. Venus is the Evening Star or the Morning Star. People call her by different names, because in the evening and in the morning she is in different places.

How the planet Venus revolves around the Sun and changes its location. During the day there is a visible movement of celestial bodies. The celestial coordinate system not only helps to understand the location of the stars, but also allows you to make star maps, navigate the night sky by constellations and study the behavior of celestial objects.

The laws of planetary motion

Combining together observations and theories about the movement of celestial bodies, people have deduced the patterns of our galaxy. The discoveries of scientists helped to decipher the visible movements of celestial bodies. discovered were among the first astronomical laws.

The German mathematician and astronomer became the discoverer of this topic. Kepler, having studied the works of Copernicus, calculated the best form for orbits, explaining the visible movements of celestial bodies - an ellipse, and brought the patterns of planetary movement, known in the scientific world as Kepler's laws. Two of them characterize the movement of the planet in orbit. They say:

    Any planet rotates in an ellipse. In one of its focuses there is the Sun.

    Each of them moves in a plane passing through the middle of the Sun, while for the same periods the radius vector between the Sun and the planet outlines equal areas.

The third law connects the orbital data of planets within a system.

Inferior and superior planets

Studying the visible movements of celestial bodies, physics divides them into two groups: the lower ones, which include Venus, Mercury, and the upper ones - Saturn, Mars, Jupiter, Neptune, Uranus and Pluto. The movement of these celestial bodies in the sphere takes place in different ways. In the process of the observed movement of the lower planets, they have a phase change like that of the Moon. When moving the upper planets, you can notice that they do not change phases, they are constantly facing people with their bright side.

Earth, along with Mercury, Venus and Mars, belongs to the group of so-called inner planets. They make revolutions around the Sun in internal orbits, in contrast to the large planets, which rotate in external orbits. For example, Mercury, which is 20 times smaller in its outermost orbit.

Comets and meteorites

In addition to the planets, billions of ice blocks revolve around the Sun, consisting of frozen solid gas, small stone and dust - comets that fill the solar system. The visible movements of celestial bodies, represented by comets, can only be seen when they approach the Sun. Then their tail starts to burn and glows in the sky.

The most famous of them is Halley's comet. Every 76 years it leaves its orbit and approaches the Sun. At this time, it can be observed from Earth. Even in the night sky, you can contemplate meteorites in the form of flying stars - these are clumps of matter that move through the Universe at great speed. When they fall into the Earth's gravitational field, they almost always burn out. Due to the extreme speed and friction with the air shell of the Earth, meteorites are heated and break up into small particles. The process of their combustion can be observed in the night sky in the form of a luminous ribbon.

The astronomy curriculum describes the apparent movements of celestial bodies. Grade 11 is already familiar with the laws by which the complex movement of the planets occurs, the change of lunar phases and the laws of eclipses.