2006-08-09 09:05:15 · 8 answers · asked by Marwan Mostakim 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Around the *galaxy*? We have gone about .05% of the way around. It takes about 200 million years for the sun to make one orbit of the galaxy and modern humans have been around for around 100 thousand years.
2006-08-09 13:05:09 · answer #1 · answered by mathematician 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
I'll answer this one, and I'll cite some sources since there seems to be disagreement.
Our galaxy is a freakin' giant. It's the second largest, and possibly the most massive Galaxy in The local group - a collection of 33 galaxies large and small. It is over 100,000 light years in diameter.
It takes our solar system - moving at 250 kilometers per second - about 220 MILLION years to orbit the galaxy. It's that big.
So there have only been 20 or so full orbits since the birth of our solar system, 4.5 billion years ago.
http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/more/mw.html
Humans have been around in their modern form for roughly 200,000 years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_evolution#Homo_sapiens
That is only 1/1100th of a single rotation. If we put it on the scale of an earth year, we've been orbiting for less than eight hours.
And there you have it. Here's to the rest of the trip!
- Cai
2006-08-09 18:17:42 · answer #2 · answered by cailano 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The dinosaurs have come and gone during the period of one galactic rotation - somewhere around 220+ million years.
The human race does not go back nearly that far, so the galaxy hasn't rotated very much since the first protohumans appeared.
Perhaps not more than about 1/100 of one rotation since 'humanity' began.
2006-08-09 16:36:24 · answer #3 · answered by Jay T 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is estimated that the solar system orbits the Milky Way once every
226 million years.
Modern humans have been around on the order of a couple million years.
2006-08-09 16:20:58 · answer #4 · answered by rt11guru 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not even one revolution. Humanity started +/- 3 millions years ago. A single revolution of our galaxy takes 250 millions years.So, we are very close to the point occupied by the system sun/earth when humanity started.
2006-08-10 07:51:28 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
1 Time, from memory I think we rotate around the galaxy every 100,000 yrs.
Let me know the answer will you save me lookin it up
2006-08-09 17:57:42 · answer #6 · answered by ? 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think .... sod all
2006-08-09 16:11:11 · answer #7 · answered by andyoptic 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
none...
2006-08-09 16:10:37 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋