Real Model of our Solar System

Ayasano

Ayasano

Member
Messages
407
This isn't really anything new. If you look at the moon's path through space relative to the sun, it forms a loose spiral, while from the Earth's perspective it rotates around us. The key word there is "relative". The current model isn't wrong, because it's depicting the motion relative to the sun, which is useful to us because spacecraft inherit both the Earth's and the Sun's velocity when they launch. It's not like Geocentrism, which is demonstrably wrong because the planets just don't move that way. You don't really have to worry about the Sun's motion relative to the galaxy until you hit solar escape velocity. After all, speed/velocity is just a measure of how quickly one thing moves past another. You're currently whizzing through space at about 1,674 km/h relative to the Earth's core, give or take a bit. Imagine your velocity relative to the galactic nucleus!

Incidentally, the motion of the planets relative to the galactic centre wouldn't actually form a spiral quite like that, because it seems to assume that the orbital inclination is 90 degrees, which it isn't. It's more like 60 degrees. It would be more stretched and irregular, not nearly as "pretty".
 

Num7

Num7

Administrator
Staff
Messages
12,586
It was interesting to see it that way.

The model we usually deal with isn't wrong either. It just doesn't consider the sun's movement through space. It only takes into account the planets' position and movement in relation to the sun.
 

I

IroncladMarshmallow

Active Member
Messages
578
In my space dynamics class, we were able to neglect the sun's motion through the galaxy in most cases. Not only that, each celestial body has what's called a sphere of influence, beyond which its gravitational effect on a spacecraft is treated as a perturbation rather than the primary force acting on it. Many simplifying assumptions are used when plotting basic missions, because it gives a very reasonable result.
 

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