Fascinating

The Solar System is Taking a Fascinating Journey Through the Milky Way

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This figure from the study shows an overview of the Radcliffe wave and selected clusters in a heliocentric Galactic Cartesian frame. The Sun is placed at the center, and its position is marked with a golden-yellow ?. The red dots denote the molecular clouds and tenuous gas bridge connections that constitute the Radcliffe wave. The blue points represent the 56 open clusters associated with the region of the Radcliffe wave that is relevant to this study. The size of the circles is proportional to the number of stars in the clusters. Image Credit: Maconi et al. 2025.

Our Solar System is in motion and cruises at about 200 kilometres per second relative to the center of the Milky Way. During its long journey, it has passed through different parts of the galaxy. Research shows that the Solar System passed through the Orion star-forming complex about 14 million years ago. The Orion star-forming … Read more