Does the disc of our solar-system have the same directional-plane as that of the Milky Way?
Question:
Answer:
According to this page from the Hayden Planetarium the angle between the ecliptic plane (plane of the Solar System, well Earth's orbit at any rate) and the Galactic plane is 62 degrees.
"At about 62 degrees, the planets revolve around the Sun steeply inclined to the Galactic disk. Of course, the planetary orbits are so small that they are lost in the Galactic disk along with the Sun, but it is fascinating to think we are not orbiting the Sun in the same plane that we orbit the Galaxy. One often thinks of the plane of the Solar System as a cardinal plane, defining how we think of up and down in space, but now we have a new horizon, the Galactic plane."
This seems to agree with what I see if I turn on display of both the ecliptic and the Galactic plane in Cartes du Ciel (a planetarium program I use.)
i'm not sure what the angle is but its not flat like a dime on a table. we can see more of the galaxy from the southern hemisphere than from the northern. in fact we can see the galaxy at night as a band of stars and it seems as if we are at almost 90 degrees from the plain of the galaxy.
i could be wrong though.
The angle of the galactic plane to the ecliptic plane is about 5.5 degrees.
that is a VERY good question! but i dont think that anyone would know.
Yes that is a good way to put it. Look at the milky way and how it pretty well stays the same. I once used a star chart that was made in the 1800 and I could not see any movement.
No, because the plane of the solar system is shown in the sky by the great circle of the constellations of the Zodiac, while the great circle of the Milky Way is quite a lot different, as you can see by looking at any star chart.
More Questions & Answers...