How far away is the center of our galaxy ?

Question

76k years to the next nearest solar system..with our present technology !

Answer 1

Democritus (450 BC - 370 BC) was the first known person to claim that the Milky Way consists of distant stars.

The main disk of the Milky Way Galaxy is about 80,000 to 100,000 light years in diameter, about 250-300 thousand light years in circumference, and outside the Galactic core, about 1,000 light years in thickness.

The Milky Way comprises a large barred spiral galaxy of Hubble type SBbc (loosely wound barred spiral) with a total mass of about 600 billion to 3 trillion solar masses. The Galactic Halo extends out to 250,000 to 400,000 light years in diameter.

The distance from the Sun to the galactic center is estimated at between about 26,000 light-years and 35,000 light-years. The disk bulges outward at the center.

The Milky Way has four principal and two minor spiral arms to it. The Sun (and therefore the Earth and Solar System) may be found close to the inner rim of the (minor) Orion Arm, in the Local Fluff (a relatively dense cloud of interstellar gas), at a distance of 7.94 ± 0.42 kiloparses from the Galactic Center. The distance between the local arm and the next arm out, the Perseus Arm, is about 6,500 light-years. Our Sun, and thus the solar system, is found in what scientists call the Galactic Habitable Zone (GHZ).

The Galactic Habitable Zone is the region of a galaxy that is close enough to the galactic center that a sufficiently high level of heavy elements exist to favor the formation of rocky planets, but is far enough from the center to avoid hazards such as impacts from comets and asteroids, close encounters with passing stars, and outbursts of radiation from supernovae and from the black hole at the center of the galaxy

In our galaxy (the Milky Way), the GHZ is currently believed to be a slowly expanding region approximately 25,000 light years (8 kiloparsecs) from the galactic core, containing stars roughly 4 billion to 8 billion years old. Other galaxies differ in their compositions, and may have a larger or smaller GHZ – or none at all. Future technologies may enable us to determine the number and location of Earth-type planets in the Milky Way, greatly refining our understanding of the Galactic habitable zone

The direction that the Sun travels through space in the Milky Way is towards the star Vega near the constellation of Hercules, at an angle of roughly 86 degrees to the direction of the Galactic Center. The orbit is roughly circular and this keeps us within the GHZ and away from the supermassive black hole at the Galactic centre and the excessive radiation associated with it.

It takes the solar system about 225-250 million years to complete one orbit (a galactic year), and so is thought to have completed about 20-25 orbits during its lifetime or .0008 orbit since the origin of man. The orbital speed of the solar system is 217 km/s, i.e. 1 light-year in circa 1400 years, and 1 AU in 8 days.

Answer 2

From Wiki:
Galactic Center - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Galactic Center is the rotational center of the Milky Way galaxy. It is located about 8 kiloparsecs (26,000 LY) away from the Earth (the exact centre of the galaxy may lie closer to 35,000 light-years from Earth/Sol)

;-D A light year is a long way. Pack a lunch!

Answer 3

Good question. First off, in order to have a center, the universe must be finite. Obviously, an infinitely large universe cannot have a center. Assuming that the universe is finite, we can only speculate on it's size. The distance of a light year is extremely hard to comprehend - and thousands of light years, in my opinion, is impossible to comprehend (186,000 X 60 X 60 X 24 X 365 = the miles in just one light year ! ) Carl Sagan used to say there are "billions and billions" of stars in the universe - and probably an equally staggering amount of galaxies. In short, now one knows - and the estimates are all over the chart. In order to locate the center, we must first locate the outside perimeter.

Answer 4

Around 26,000 light years away. Interestingly, at the center of our galaxy lies a supermassive blackhole called Sagittarius A. It's size is around 1 AU in diameter and it is 3.7 million times as massive as our Sun. There are stars orbiting around it at a speed of 3 million miles per hour!!! You can see photographs and maps of the galactic center at the UCLA Galactic Center Group www.astro.ucla.edu

Answer 5

The distance between the centre of the solar system and the centre of our galaxy is around 26000 light years.

Answer 6

Current estimates range between 26000 and 35000 light years.
Hard to be sure, as the galactic dust is in the way, and vision is not that clear that way as a consequence

Answer 7

i think it should be 2500 light years to 3600 light years. 1 ly = 3.6 trillion miles.