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pulsarmine t1_j268nsl wrote

Reply to comment by Aseyhe in How fast does the Milky Way spin? How far does Earth move through space in a year? by Sabre-Tooth-Monkey

It's interesting and intuitive but relatively non-obvious. The galaxy operates with the same physics as the galaxy. Planets closer to the sun orbit faster than objects further out. So too are the objects near the center of the galaxy orbiting faster than those objects in the outskirts.

Edit for visibility: This is meant as a simple explanation and not a comprehensive one. There are far more details about the movement of things in the night sky than what I would expect anyone to know of or understand. Please take this for what it is - a very simple illustration - and not an absolute truth.

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blargerer t1_j26ab2h wrote

Except not quite, which is where the dark matter postulates come from. The Galaxies outer parts are spinning too fast and it would tear itself apart if you just modeled it after the solar system.

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pulsarmine t1_j26axlv wrote

Well, yes, but that's not relevant for a very simplistic idea of the motion of a galaxy. A singular reddit comment is not comprehensive and would take far more baseline knowledge to promote that sort of understanding.

For the average person they don't know and don't care about that smaller detail.

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