r/Damnthatsinteresting • • 12h ago

Video Earth’s evolution measured in galactic years.

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u/Strong_Jello_739 12h ago

So what does the Milky Way orbit? From what we know everything orbits something

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u/Astrogod07 12h ago

Everything is subject to gravitational forces, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a true orbit. The Milky Way is part of a local cluster of galaxies that are all strongly bound to each other and do roughly orbit the group’s center of mass.

Our local group is part of the Virgo Supepercluster of galaxies. While there is an incredibly concentrated mass that attracts objects within the cluster, at this point things don’t truly have a nearly defined orbit due to the strong and complex forces at play.

Above this scale, the expansion of the universe starts to truly counteract gravity. At the largest scales, the universe kind of pulls matter into large cobweb like structures with filaments stretching between and filed with clusters of mass.

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u/Big-Tax1771 12h ago

I read this in a Neil Degrasse Tyson voice and I don’t regret it.