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Q: what do you think about Galactic context of our solar system ?
| Option | Answer | Is Correct |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Solar System is located in the Milky Way galaxy, a barred spiral galaxy with a diameter of about 100,000 light years containing about 200 billion stars. Our Sun resides in one of the Milky Way’s outer spiral arms, known as the Orion Arm or Local Spur.While the orbital speed and radius of the galaxy are not accurately known, estimates place the solar system at between 25,000 and 28,000 light years from the galactic center and its speed at about 220 kilometers per second, completing one revolution every 225-250 million years. This revolution is known as the Solar System’s galactic year. The Solar System’s orbit appears unusual. It is both extremely close to being circular, and at nearly the exact distance at which the orbital speed matches the speed of the compression waves that form the spiral arms. Evidence suggests that the Solar System has remained between spiral arms for most of the existence of life on Earth. The radiation from supernovae in spiral arms could theoretically sterilize planetary surfaces, preventing the formation of complex life. The Solar System also lies well outside the star-crowded environs of the galactic center. There, gravitational tugs from nearby stars could perturb bodies in the Oort Cloud and send many comets into the inner Solar System, producing collisions with potentially catastrophic implications for life on Earth, Even at the Solar Systems current location, some scientists have hypothesized that recent supernovae may have adversely affected life in the last 35,000 years, by flinging pieces of expelled stellar core towards the Sun in the form of radioactive dust grains and larger, comet-like bodies. The Solar apex, the direction of the Sun’s path through interstellar space, is near the constellation of Hercules in the direction of the current location of the bright star Vega. At the galactic location of the solar system, the escape velocity with regard to the gravity of the Milky Way is at least 500 km/s. |
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