Even at that high rate, it takes the Sun about 230 million years to go around the galaxy once! One journey around the Milky Way galaxy is sometimes called a cosmic year. We are moving at an average velocity of 828,000 km/hr. Our entire solar system-which contains our Sun, planets, moon, asteroid, and comets-orbits the center of the Milky Way. (A light-year is about 5.88 trillion miles.)Īnd it’ not just only our Sun orbiting. Yes! T he Sun orbits around the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, which is a spiral galaxy. It’s located about two-thirds of the way out from the center of the Milky Way which is about 28,000 light–years away. The giant gas planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, also spin faster at their equators than at their poles. We know this by watching the motion of sunspots and other solar features move across the Sun. It can take those areas more than 30 days to complete one rotation. The Sun’s north and south poles rotate more slowly. The Sun actually spins faster at its equator than at its poles.Īt the surface, the area around the equator rotates once about every 24 days. Different sections rotate at different speeds! The Sun spins or rotates on its axis in the same direction as Earth (counterclockwise, when looking down from the north pole).īecause it is a gas, it does not rotate like a solid. Yes, the Sun rotates! The Sun is the center of our solar system, but it doesn’t stay in one place.
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