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Redbelly98 t1_ix1j72p wrote

Reply to comment by Barcata in Do We Know Where Our Sun Was Born? by baracuda68

It has made at least 20 orbits around the galaxy. So, probably not born anywhere near where it is now.

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The_Only_AL t1_ix1tezd wrote

It seems weird talking about something cosmological and it’s only 20 twenty something. I mean it’s a number you can actual wrap your head around. Everything else in the universe is just mind-boggling.

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MegatheriumRex t1_ix28svh wrote

It’s definitely neat. That said, given that each orbit takes like 230 million years, it’s pretty easy to shift back into the realm of the mind boggling.

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The_Only_AL t1_ix2f35c wrote

Yeah I can’t even fathom 1 million years. I suppose I can rationalise it as 500 times the amount of years since Jesus was crucified. But then to multiply that by 230 loses all meaning.

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MegatheriumRex t1_ix2iowk wrote

Yeah. It becomes pretty incomprehensible.

Another fun way to frame it: 230 million years ago, it’s the middle of the Triassic and dinosaurs are getting their start.

So, (very roughly) from around the time dinosaurs first appeared until now (with all the evolution and extinction in between that eventually led to today’s animals and humans, including all of human societal and technological development squeezed in at the very end) the solar system has orbited the galaxy one time.

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Redbelly98 t1_ix5okuu wrote

It's also weird to think about how the constellations we see today were identified hundreds (or thousands?) of years ago and the stars' positions in the sky have changed little in that time. Yet one sun-orbital-period ago, it must have looked very different.

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Chromspray t1_ix32muu wrote

20 somethings we can't understand. There's no way you or I truly get how far one orbit around the galaxy is, let alone 20.

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