• @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        228 days ago

        unfortunately i feel you can’t call yourself spacefaring unless you actually control the ship, and we have about as much control over our trajectory as a mosquito has control over the amount of blood inside a blue whale

          • stebo
            link
            fedilink
            228 days ago

            but it also goes around in circles, or maybe it’s more of a spiral

              • stebo
                link
                fedilink
                328 days ago

                another circle maybe? does anyone really know?

                • @[email protected]
                  link
                  fedilink
                  528 days ago

                  The Milky Way is in a sort of orbit around the center of the Local Group which is the name for the local group of galaxies. It’s not a clean circular orbit and it’s not possible to calculate the rotation time, because the pull from other galaxies is stronger than their collective centre of point of gravity, but sure, it rotates overall on that scale too.

                  The next levels are different. The Local Group is part of a larger supercluster of galaxies that do not seem to rotate. It’s more like flows of galaxy clusters. Depending on the point and scale we look at, it may be shrinking or expanding. Perhaps there is some rotation to it, but the scale of both distance and time is so incredibly large that it’s meaningless.

                  • stebo
                    link
                    fedilink
                    328 days ago

                    the Local Group, which is the name for the local group of galaxies

                    sounds like they spent a lot of time coming up with that name

                    jokes aside, thanks for the interesting info!