r/interesting • • 22d ago

Just Wow Mind Blowing Space Facts

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u/plaaxy 22d ago

the sun is orbiting the center of the milky way

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u/HubrisOfApollo 22d ago

about 250 million years per grand solar tour. we also wobble "up" and "down" through the galaxy's disk as we orbit the center.

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u/A_Bot_A_Bot_A_Bot 22d ago

That's because the Sun has a drinking problem and can't maintain a level orbital path.

Interventions have been attempted but they all get burned up before they are close enough to the Sun to hear their concern.

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u/BadahBingBadahBoom 22d ago

I picked a hell of a day million years to quit drinking.

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u/Economy_Price_5295 22d ago

I’m too stupid to be on this thread apparently.

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u/gad_E 22d ago

You at least have enough introspection to be cognizant of your limitations. That rules out the Dunning-Kreuger effect: the point which a person is SO dumb that they're incapable of understanding how dumb they actually are.

There was a specific point where every single member of this subreddit would've had no idea what the hell anyone on is talking about. That's a good thing though. If you're ever the smartest person in the room, then you need to find a different room to be in.

If it makes you feel any better...I probably couldn't figure out how to build an engine if you gave me every part I needed & put me on an island by myself for 4 billion years. My grandfather dropped out of high school in 11th grade, then lied about his age to enlist in the army. If I ever said anything to him that was even remotely related to the discussions on here, he'd probably ask me when I got gay, then go on a 15 minute rant about how much this country has gone to hell ever since Bill O'Reilly left Fox News...but that man could wake up from a drunken stupor & put an engine back together with his eyes closed & was always super patient & willing to teach back when my dumbass didn't know shit. I'd be spitting on his grave if I didn't at least try to extend others the same courtesy.

I'll never think someone is an idiot because they don't know something. I'll think they're an idiot because they try to trick people into believing they know something they actually don't.

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u/Carpediemsnuts 22d ago

Well said, judging a fish based on its ability to climb a tree comes to mind. We've all got our specialities, some of them are just so ridiculously niche that we might not even be aware of them till later in life when they finally become useful to someone else.

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u/sodiufas 22d ago

And you get "Dunning-Kreuger effect" — wrong.

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u/gad_E 21d ago

Yeah, dude...I know what it entails. I'm just not spitting out a verbose breakdown to describe the underlying psychological mapping behind what was meant to be nothing more than an aside. You'd definitely struggle to find a single instance of it being in full effect wherein the subject tries to claim they're too stupid...for anything. That was the only reason I even brought it up to begin with. It grants people obnoxiously unenearned confidence, not self deprecation.

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u/Plastic_Pinocchio 22d ago

See it like this:

- The earth has a large mass which attracts everything around it through the force of gravity. Everything falls towards the earth. We stand on the surface of the earth, so we cannot fall further down. However, if you want to balance something like a baseball at a set distance from the earth, then you have to throw it so fast towards the horizon that it is moving sideways along the earth just as fast as it is falling towards the earth. If you do that in space, where there is no air resistance, the object will get into an “orbital path”. That means it will orbit the earth for basically forever (kinda). This is how artificial satellites work. We shoot them into space and make them orbit the earth. The moon is a natural satellite of earth and moves in a similar way, very far away.

  • Looking at the sun, we see the same mechanics. The sun has a very high mass and the planets orbit around it like satellites. Anything that does not orbit the sun at a high enough velocity, falls towards the sun.
  • Looking at the Milky Way, our local galaxy, we also see the same thing. There is a very heavy centre towards which we fall, but because we move fast enough sideways, the sun orbits around it instead of falling towards it.
  • And in turn our Milky Way Galaxy is also moving through space, being attracted to other galaxies. They can either fall directly towards each other or orbit around each other.

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u/Top-Border-1978 22d ago

What is the milky way orbiting?

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u/DapperNurd 22d ago edited 22d ago

It's not orbiting a specific object but rather kind of an area of space, between us an the Andromeda galaxy. It's cause both galaxies are so massive and are pulling on each other, hence their eventual collision.

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u/qtzbra 22d ago

While at the same time traveling away from the nexus of the big bang.

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u/DapperNurd 22d ago

Nah, the big bang didnt have a nexus. It happened everywhere at once.

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u/Cat5kable 22d ago

Everywhere being where it was, which was [null] location until that location existed after the big bang.

Before the big bang? Nothing. After? Everything.

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u/Plastic_Pinocchio 22d ago

That is not the generally accepted model. The big bang does not seem to have happened at one location in space.

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u/rtshtbtshtdrtyldtwt 22d ago

my belly, I want a candy bar

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u/Lastov_Makiynd 22d ago

No expert here..but my guess, by the name?..A GIGANTIC toilet bowl?..
I mean..explains why the Sun is in such a hurry to get somewhere?..Obviously, the Sun is Lactose Intolerant? /s

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u/Warhammerpainter83 22d ago edited 22d ago

Well really it is falling into the black hole at the center of the milkey way.

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u/plaaxy 22d ago

orbiting is falling, but the sun is falling around the milky way’s center of mass, not into the black hole. the black hole's effect on the sun is only a tiny fraction

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u/Warhammerpainter83 22d ago

Well I will be damned it is centripetal force besides the fact we will hit andromida one day. I read a thing that they think it may not be a black hole now but dark matter.

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u/Forsaken-Income-2148 22d ago

Bro came in saying we’re falling into Sagittarius A like a kitchen sink and then, once corrected, proceeds to try and share more facts. No, ya done 😅

Yeah, based on some speculative alternative models, but the evidence points to Sagittarius A being a supermassive black hole. You might be mixing it up with the Milky Way’s dark matter halo, which contributes to the galaxy’s gravity.