Did everyone forget about the galaxy? It’s also a giant circle, and the sun orbits it like we orbit the sun.
Perhaps the real question should be “Where is the Galaxy taking us?”
Mama!
Submitted 1 week ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/6fb7e3f8-44a7-4fa1-9566-5695a91d57c0.jpeg
Comments
ZombieMantis@lemmy.world 1 week ago
ameancow@lemmy.world 6 days ago
“Where is the Galaxy taking us?”
Towards the andromeda galaxy which is over twice the size of the Milky Way. We are hurtling towards each other at about a quarter millions miles per hour.
For thousands of years after you die, that little fuzzy spot near Cassiopeia will slowly get larger and larger in the sky, and in about a four billion years, long after the Earth’s oceans have dried up and the sun is a giant, reddish monster hovering in the sky, and our magnetic field will have long since died out, our atmosphere will have been mostly stripped away and the weather will feel like being on the highest mountains in an oven, the night sky will be covered with a dazzling display of the Andromeda galaxy overhead, spiral arms visible with the naked eye stretching from horizon to horizon.
We will merge, in a series of passes through each other, with almost no stars actually colliding most likely, although a good number will be ejected into the emptiness of intergalactic space, and will finally settle into a new shape, and may trigger a new phase of star formation as new clouds of gas and dust collide and collapse in the new super-galaxy.
Unbecredible@sh.itjust.works 6 days ago
Oh no you zoomed out to far and triggered the weird sensation. How bizarre it all is!! To know these things as little ape creatures. So small as to barely exist in a lake of space and an ocean of time. Whywhywhyhowwhyhowhowhow is any of this real???
Spaniard@lemmy.world 6 days ago
The Milky way and Andromeda may not collide.
SethTaylor@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Knowing there’s no chance imaginable of being able to witness all this is so depressing… My death anxiety feeds on thoughts like this.
humanspiral@lemmy.ca 6 days ago
First thank you for filling in OP’s coverup of Mama’s intentions.
We will merge, in a series of passes through each other, with almost no stars actually colliding
So then, we’re just going for a ride to a farm upstate :(
Thorry@feddit.org 6 days ago
Fun fact, we do not just orbit the galaxy in a circle, we also have a motion perpendicular to that circle. We oscillate up and down through the plane of the Milky Way. The Milky Way is super thin, like super ultra thin. If the Milky Way were a pancake, it would only be the thickness of a sheet of paper, a sad pancake indeed. However in terms of human scales it is still huge, so we have a large way to travel. Our galactic orbit is tilted as compared to the galactic plane, so throughout the cosmic year we move up and down as compared to the center. A motion of 100-200 light year, so pretty big. That orbit also has procession, so we move through different parts.
The galaxy itself is also moving, although at that scale it’s easier to thing of the galaxy to be stationary and other galaxies moving towards or away from us. In general we are all moving towards a galaxy cluster known as “The Great Attractor” as it is the most massive (except for your mom).
It’s also often forgotten that our sun isn’t the only star moving in the galaxy. All of the stars orbit the galaxy in a lot of different orbits. And some don’t orbit at all, instead moving with escape velocity to get flung outside of our galaxy. Some have their own orbit in companion dwarf galaxies that in turn orbit our own galaxy. It’s easy to think of a galaxy as a fixed thing, with all the stars in the same place moving together like on a disk. But this isn’t the case at all, stars aren’t bound together and can follow their own path. Over time their relative positions change and the constellations we know won’t exist anymore.
The structures we see in galaxies like spiral arms for example are only structures in the same way a wave in the ocean is a structure. It is clearly a thing that exists, with properties we can at least somewhat constrain (like size for example). But the water inside that wave is just water like everywhere else. At one point it’s part of the wave and then at some point it no longer is.
ivanafterall@lemmy.world 6 days ago
That’s called a crepe and they are DELICIOUS.
RedSnt@feddit.dk 6 days ago
As far as I know we’re headed toward another galaxy. Luckily we’ll all by long gone by the time that collision happens.
ThatGuy46475@lemmy.world 6 days ago
The galaxy is taking us to see its friend
Illogicalbit@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Now do local groups and super clusters! The universe is wild!
Noite_Etion@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Ane like all good mothers one day she will grow into a red giant, engulfing her children and obliterating all life on earth.
That is the true meaning of mothers day ❤️
scala@lemmy.ml 6 days ago
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 6 days ago
There’s also no reason to believe that expansion isn’t happening in a spheroid pattern. The big bang wouldn’t have been like a blunderbuss, more like a naval mine suspended in the abyss, exploding in all directions.
For that matter, did the big bang ever cease, or has it continued to spew out new energy, and we’re just so inconceivably far out that our entire observable universe is just one small section of a relatively narrow range of distance from the center?
Lastly, if the big bang is like a faucet, what if black holes are like drains in a tub, or in other words wormholes leading back to whatever realm everything came from before being spewed out by the big bang?
Everything in the universe is cyclical; there’s no way something doesn’t complete the circuit, even if it’s just a big crunch.
Donkter@lemmy.world 6 days ago
This model does assume the big bang happened in a spheroid pattern. It’s just flattened to add time as an axis from left to right cause you couldn’t represent time otherwise.
flying_sheep@lemmy.ml 6 days ago
There’s also no reason to believe that the big bang happened at one “point”. I believe that the universe (and therefore the big bang) are infinite.
Everything is relative, so something infinite can still expand: since there’s no absolute speed, galaxies can move away from each other everywhere, at all times.
MrShankles@reddthat.com 6 days ago
I’ma have to come back to that. Aware of the concept, but not have much driven to the core concept. Little too tired to read, but thanks friend
scala@lemmy.ml 6 days ago
Theirs a good video on Startalk youtu.be/zGfIbEqDDLY
stiffyGlitch@lemmy.world 6 days ago
I read “Dark energy” and immediately thought of Voldie the wart (Voldemort)
Zink@programming.dev 6 days ago
Fun, fun, we skip along together!
Swirling towards the center…
Where there is no pain and we are truly together, forever.
…
Eat at Arby’s
MrShankles@reddthat.com 6 days ago
May I have a point of reference?
EightLeggedFreak@lemmy.world 6 days ago
There was a twitter account that went by nihilistic arby’s and they posted stuff like this.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 6 days ago
burma shave
stiffyGlitch@lemmy.world 6 days ago
I saw that once and thought that it was an actual jingle for an Arby’s commercial x_x
sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 1 week ago
The sun is not a sweet mother, he is armed with the great serpent Xiuhcoatl and demands the hearts of our enemies.
Liz@midwest.social 1 week ago
It’s my understanding that the specific direction on this relative motion graphic is just made-up, but it does do a good job of reminding people that we’re orbiting the galactic center.
StellarExtract@lemmy.zip 1 week ago
I’d love to know what the actual direction currently looks like though
anzo@programming.dev 1 week ago
AFAIK, the problem is that we don’t even know with certsinty the shape of the universe. Let alone find out anything outside our own cosmos…
Fossifoo@hexbear.net 6 days ago
You mean like this? i0.wp.com/…/movement-of-earth-within-milky-way-ga…
ZkhqrD5o@lemmy.world 1 week ago
The fun stops when you find out about Sagittarius A.
ivanafterall@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Not necessarily. I like to think I’m pretty resilient.
DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 6 days ago
I mean its kinda terrifying when you think about it from the perspective of someone who grew up in an abusive household
“You will never leave my control”
Either you get tossed to the curb by mom and you are cold and alone after being so used to the warmth and the plant is dead (flung out of orbit), or get murdered by her (red giant… engulf the system)
Tyrq@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 days ago
User name checks out
AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 6 days ago
There’s a third option, but it may still lead to option 2 eventually. We invent starlifting, and keep our sun “young,” while also having the added benefit of strapping a solar thrusters to her so we can steer the solar system.
Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de 1 week ago
That’s not Mama, that’s our son!
stiffyGlitch@lemmy.world 6 days ago
ok! time for all those years of science to finally pay off:
Would you still love “her” if you knew that, every single second, thousands of waves of extreme radiation from the Sun, traveling at a million light-years per millisecond, hits our planet’s atmosphere? These waves slowly erode one of the only protections that we have against the Sun. But don’t worry, this planet has several more tricks up – and under – the crust of the Earth. The iron core of the earth emits a geomagnetic field that extends into space, creating a region called the magnetosphere. This magnetosphere blocks most of the Sun’s deadly rays, deflecting them back into space.
xthexder@l.sw0.com 6 days ago
traveling at a million light-years per millisecond
You’re only off by a factor of about 30 quadrillion.
Light (famously a type of radiation), travels take 1 year to travel a light-year, hence the name.
If you want to make it sound impressive, then astronomical units aren’t the right choice. The sun is only 1 AU away from us after all.
boonhet@sopuli.xyz 6 days ago
A million lightmicroseconds every second
Fixed that for them
stiffyGlitch@lemmy.world 5 days ago
Ok. Wasn’t trying to make it sound impressive, just trying to say that the sun is sharting radiation at us.
massacre@lemmy.world 6 days ago
million light-years per millisecond
Gonna need a citation on that one! ;)
kidding aside, Mars is a great example of what will happen to Earth should our core stop generating our magnetic field. Also… Auroras!
stiffyGlitch@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Yes! The Auroras are the result of the Sun’s rays that were rebounded and sent to both of the poles. Also, I don’t know the exact speed, but its really reeeeeaaaaalyyyyy fucking fast. Like, my brain can’t even fathom how fast it is. I can’t imagine the scientists that study this every single day think. Are they like “oh shit the sun is just about to shart some deadly fucking radiation time to do some science to make it stop” I am actually convinced that science is magic, and every scientist that ever lived had to say some oath to never tell people that they’re wizards. Meanwhile we’re like “oh ok they have this tool that looks like a medieval torture device they either must be really smart or stole that from a museum or time-traveled and yoinked that shit and brought it back here”
Zamboni_Driver@lemmy.ca 6 days ago
Um, yes because without those waves plants wouldn’t grow and we wouldn’t be alive.
peetabix@sh.itjust.works 6 days ago
If those deadly rays are getting reflected back into space, how do astronauts protect themselves against it? Is the ISS beneath the magnetosphere?
ContriteErudite@lemmy.world 6 days ago
On the side of the Earth facing the sun, the magnetosphere extends about 40,000km into space. The solar wind stretches the magnetosphere into a tail that extends well beyond the Moon’s orbit. The ISS orbits at an altitude of about 400km; it is well within the magnetosphere.
Because it is above the majority of the atmosphere (and also because it just barely passes through the lowest part of the Van Allen radiation belts), astronauts in the ISS are exposed to higher levels of radiation. However, the ISS has shielding specifically designed to minimize radiation, and astronauts living there are considered to be within safe levels of exposure.
stiffyGlitch@lemmy.world 6 days ago
I don’t know. science, I guess?
zen@lemmy.zip 1 week ago
What if Sol is not our Mama, but our Pied Piper? 🎺
NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 1 week ago
WhyIHateTheInternet@lemmy.world 1 week ago
🤞
Gladaed@feddit.org 6 days ago
The sun is literally having zero part in this. We would still circle around the galaxy in the same way without her. Only orbits would change a bit.
Siethron@lemmy.world 5 days ago
Really? We’re pretty far from galactic center, if we didn’t have the Gas Giants wouldn’t Earth eventually escape galactic orbit with it’s low relative mass?
Gladaed@feddit.org 5 days ago
No. The moon wouldn’t suddenly book it either if the sun disappeared, would it? Or more in line with the example: the moon would not suddenly leave the solar system if the earth disappeared.
panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 1 week ago
Does the sun actually travel in a straight line, or do the orbits of the planets wobble it, and to what extent?
rImITywR@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Everything in the solar system (even the Son) orbit around the center of mass of everything in the solar system. This epicenter is just outside of the Son, on the side that Jupiter is. So the Son wobbles by a little bit more than 1 of its radii.
MagicShel@lemmy.zip 1 week ago
Sun, I am disappoint.
mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 6 days ago
This epicenter is just outside of the Son
*Sometimes. The other planets can counterbalance Jupiter’s effect on the barycenter to pull it back into the surface of the Sun.
Also, it’s Sun, not Son
Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 6 days ago
Juipiter’s orbit wobbles it, as others said, the barycenter of the system is outside the sun’s radius, but the scale of the planets vs their orbits is so great such a small wobble is imperceptable if you can see multiple orbits.
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 6 days ago
I think the graph shows relative position of the planets from the sun, so the straight line is just a baseline.
Like if you jump up and down on a plane, and the graph just shows you moving a couple of feet up and down rather than including the entire altitude change of the plane itself
Oisteink@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Yeah - you’re onto it. Relative to what?
DarkFuture@lemmy.world 5 days ago
Mama knows how we behave. She’s taking us to the nearest galactic playground where she’ll abandon us.
expatriado@lemmy.world 1 week ago
i see, that’s why the ecliptic and the milky way don’t align on the sky
SethTaylor@lemmy.world 6 days ago
MrShankles@reddthat.com 6 days ago
Warp 11?
Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 6 days ago
To saggitariusA
SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 6 days ago
I don’t want to go there. I heard it sucks
Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Unfortunately, you’re not driving
GrammarPolice@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Wait a minute… We’re moving?
Siethron@lemmy.world 5 days ago
Always have been.
Midnitte@beehaw.org 1 week ago
Isn’t this what Sepiroth wanted to do woth Jenova?
BanMe@lemmy.world 6 days ago
IDK sometimes it feels like everything is just gonna explode one day
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 6 days ago
It’s all oszillations.
dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 1 week ago
While I’ve never seen it illustrated until now, I thought it was kind of obvious that this is our reality from outside our solar system. Is it not?
FilthyShrooms@lemmy.world 1 week ago
We’re going in a circle, I like to imagine it like a parent driving around the block to put their kid to sleep
Zwiebel@feddit.org 1 week ago
Uhhm guyss shes just taking us around the galaxy
shneancy@lemmy.world 1 week ago
and where is the galaxy taking us then?
IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
To visit/fistfight the Andromeda galaxy.
NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 1 week ago
The Great Attractor
FilthyShrooms@lemmy.world 1 week ago
To the Andromeda Galaxy