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Credit & Copyright:
Copyright: P. C. Frisch (U. Chicago), with thanks to C. Wellman
Explanation:
You are here. The orange dot in the above false-color drawing represents the
current location of the
Sun among local
gas clouds in the
spiral
Milky Way Galaxy.
These gas clouds are so thin that we
usually see right through them.
Nearly spherical bubbles surround
regions of recent star
formation. The
purple filaments near the Sun are gas shells
resulting from star formation 4 million years ago in the
Scorpius-Centaurus Association,
located to the Sun's lower left. The
Sun has been between spiral arms
moving through relatively low density gas
for the past 5 million years. In contrast, the Sun oscillates in the
Milky Way plane
every 66 million years,
and circles the
Galactic Center
every 250 million years.
Copyright: P. C. Frisch (U. Chicago), with thanks to C. Wellman
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Sun - Solar Neighborhood - interstellar medium - Milky Way
Publications with words: Sun - Solar Neighborhood - interstellar medium - Milky Way
See also:
- APOD: 2024 May 11 Á AR 3664: Giant Sunspot Group
- APOD: 2024 February 19 Á Looking Sideways from the Parker Solar Probe
- Circling the Sun
- APOD: 2023 December 12 Á Aurora and Milky Way over Norway
- APOD: 2023 December 11 Á Solar Minimum versus Solar Maximum
- Milky Way Rising
- APOD: 2023 November 19 Á Space Station, Solar Prominences, Sun