Orientation of Solar System

[Essay]

Some time ago I figured our solar system was oriented a certain way as it traveled around the galaxy.
I don't even recall how now, but....
Does anyone know of a link or have other info. or opinion?

IMHO
The plane of our solar system is perpendicular to the plane of the Milky Way, and perpendicular to our direction of travel--towards the South.

I suppose that would be the South Pole of the Sun (assuming it roughly aligns with our South Pole) pointing toward our direction of travel around the galaxy.
Do those two perpendiculars define enough of a frame?

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks,
~SA

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Essay

Some time ago I figured our solar system was oriented a certain way as it traveled around the galaxy.
I don't even recall how now, but....
Does anyone know of a link or have other info. or opinion?
...
Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks,
~SA

Funny, but in poking into the galactic plane in another thread on the solar system above/below galactic plane, I kinda guess I felt as you, that they were more-or-less parallel. It wasn't pertinent there, but you got a poser here for sure now. My curiosity piqued, I found us theses:

IRAS View Of The Milky Way Galaxy

PHY 445/515: Coordinate Systems

Originally Posted by Sony Brook State University of New York

The galactic equator is inclined to the celestial equator by 62.6o.

[Essay]

Parallel? Did you mean perpendicular?
===

Cool Pic!
from: IRAS View Of The Milky Way Galaxy
"The hazy, horizontal S-shaped feature that crosses the image is faint heat emitted by dust in the plane of the solar system."

Yes, that blue line is at ~60 degrees! Not quite the 90 degrees I thought it was, but still far from parallel.
===

PHY 445/515: Coordinate Systems
"The ecliptic coordinate system is based on the apparent Solar orbit, and is the natural system for Solar System studies.... The inclination of the ecliptic with respect to the celestial equator is 23 degrees."

Shouldn't that 23 degrees be added onto the 62 degrees (Earth's angle) to get the angle of the solar system to the galactic plane?

But it looks like 60ish degrees.
Maybe that's a mistake, and they should be saying "The galactic equator is inclined to the celestial ecliptic equator by 62.6 degrees."

...or does it just "look" that (62 degrees) way because it's photographed from earth?
...and the galactic equator would be inclined ~86 (62.6+23.3) degrees to the ecliptic equator?
===

Any info. on direction of travel (Southern Hemisphere forward?)?
===

Great links: Thanks,

~

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Essay

Parallel? Did you mean perpendicular?

Uhm...erhm...I don't think so? I had it in my mind that the axes through the galactic plane & solar plane were parallel.
===

Originally Posted by Esssay

Cool Pic!
from: IRAS View Of The Milky Way Galaxy
"The hazy, horizontal S-shaped feature that crosses the image is faint heat emitted by dust in the plane of the solar system."

Yes, that blue line is at ~60 degrees! Not quite the 90 degrees I thought it was, but still far from parallel.
===

Shall we say, "not aligned" as we thought? Picture's worth a thousand words at any angle.

Originally Posted by E Say

PHY 445/515: Coordinate Systems
"The ecliptic coordinate system is based on the apparent Solar orbit, and is the natural system for Solar System studies.... The inclination of the ecliptic with respect to the celestial equator is 23 degrees."

Shouldn't that 23 degrees be added onto the 62 degrees (Earth's angle) to get the angle of the solar system to the galactic plane?

But it looks like 60ish degrees.
Maybe that's a mistake, and they should be saying "The galactic equator is inclined to the celestial ecliptic equator by 62.6 degrees."

...or does it just "look" that (62 degrees) way because it's photographed from earth?
...and the galactic equator would be inclined ~86 (62.6+23.3) degrees to the ecliptic equator?
===

I puzzled over this awhile when reading the link. I think the explanation is in this part (boldening mine):

Originally Posted by Stony Brook

Ecliptic Coordinates
The ecliptic coordinate system is based on the apparent Solar orbit, and is the natural system for Solar System studies. The equator (the ecliptic) is the plane of the terrestrial orbit, projected onto the celestial sphere. The poles are projections of the Earth's orbital poles. Coordinates , are measured in degrees. The inclination of the ecliptic with respect to the celestial equator is

23o26'21".448 - 46".82T - 0".0006T2 + 0".0018T3,
where T in the number of Julian Centuries from 2000AD. The origin is the same as that of the celestial system. The north ecliptic pole is located at 18h +66o33' in celestial coordinates. Conversion from ecliptic to celestial coordinates involves only a rotation of the sphere. ...

Originally Posted by Eee Say

Any info. on direction of travel (Southern Hemisphere forward?)?
===

Great links: Thanks,

~

Nothing that I have seen yet on who leads, N or S.

My pleasure; thanks for interesting questions. I think we can worry this bone a bit more before we bury it, eh?

[Essay]

Lunchtime again: gotta run now

Originally Posted by Turtle

The origin is the same as that of the celestial system.

Do they mean in terms of T?
===

They say:
"The poles are projections of the Earth's orbital poles."
I take this to mean the poles projected up from a plane through our inscribed orbit (not through our planets equator). So wouldn't this be pretty much the same as the sun's poles?

...except for the

Originally Posted by google

Earth — Inclination: Reference (0) (7.25° to Sun's equator)
According to Earth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - More sources »

So would that 7.25 get added onto the 86 degrees or subtracted from it, I wonder?
===

I admit that as my first impression (metaphor) of the solar system and galaxy, I imagined them as parallel; but as my first post said, years ago something made me figure that they were perpendicular ...and traveling South.

But I still think the solar ecliptic is tilted up around 90 degrees relative to the galactic equator.

Earth's orbit is tilted ~7 degrees relative to the solar ecliptic and the planet is tilted ~23 degrees relative to that orbit, but I don't know if they have an additive or cancelling effect relative to the solar ecliptic.

But whichever, I think that is why that blue band of the solar system appeared (from Earth) to be offset by about 30 degrees from the galactic perpendicular.

Thanks for the help ,

~

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Essay

Lunchtime again: gotta run now
Do they mean in terms of T?

I haven't a clue.
===

Originally Posted by Es Ay

They say:
"The poles are projections of the Earth's orbital poles."
I take this to mean the poles projected up from a plane through our inscribed orbit (not through our planets equator). So wouldn't this be pretty much the same as the sun's poles?

Again, not sure. I think the ecliptic is more-or-less a mean because none of the planets orbit in the same plane? Perhaps our focus ought go to this: PHY 445/515: Coordinate Systems

Originally Posted by Stunny Broke

The origin [of the ecliptic] is the same as that of the celestial system.

Originally Posted by E Say

I admit that as my first impression (metaphor) of the solar system and galaxy, I imagined them as parallel; but as my first post said, years ago something made me figure that they were perpendicular ...and traveling South.

But I still think the solar ecliptic is tilted up around 90 degrees relative to the galactic equator.

Earth's orbit is tilted ~7 degrees relative to the solar ecliptic and the planet is tilted ~23 degrees relative to that orbit, but I don't know if they have an additive or cancelling effect relative to the solar ecliptic.

But whichever, I think that is why that blue band of the solar system appeared (from Earth) to be offset by about 30 degrees from the galactic perpendicular.

Thanks for the help ,

~

The picture says it all for me; except of course which pole leads still. Whether 30º or 60º, it's 30º, 60º, 90º all around and that is rather interesting to note in its own right.

[modest]

Originally Posted by Turtle

The picture says it all for me; except of course which pole leads still.

I think that 90 degrees longitude (l=90) in the galactic coordinate system is the direction of galactic rotation. The constellation Cygnus resides there. Toward Cygnus would then be the direction of galactic rotation from our point of view. As Cygnus resides in our northern earthly hemisphere (and by extension, the solar northern hemisphere), I believe the north pole of the earth and sun should lead our motion of galactic rotation.

A person sitting on the north pole of the earth would be able to see where the solar system is heading (toward the direction of Cygnus), while a person sitting on the south pole could not.

Rotation image 1
Rotation image 2

Galactic longitude is measured in degrees as well from 0° to 360° originating in the direction of the axial center of the Milky Way in the constellation Sagittarius. Traveling around the galactic equator we find Cygnus at 90°,

Galactic Coordinate System

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by modest

I think that 90 degrees longitude (l=90) in the galactic coordinate system is the direction of galactic rotation. The constellation Cygnus resides there. Toward Cygnus would then be the direction of galactic rotation from our point of view. As Cygnus resides in our northern earthly hemisphere (and by extension, the solar northern hemisphere), I believe the north pole of the earth and sun should lead our motion of galactic rotation.

A person sitting on the north pole of the earth would be able to see where the solar system is heading (toward the direction of Cygnus), while a person sitting on the south pole could not.

Rotation image 1
Rotation image 2

Roger. Now just to check here, because your second diagram is a bit confusing in this regard, the solar system is orbiting the galactic center counter-clockwise, oui/no?

Also, your last link affirms the above-the-galactic-plane assertion we came to here & elsewhere. >> NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Galactic coordinate system

...Our solar system lies 112.7±1.8 light years (34.56±0.56 pc) [1] above the central plane of the Milky Way. ...

[belovelife]

i personally think that the center of the galaxy (black hole)
alighns the entire galaxy using 3 fields
1-gravity
2-magnetism
3-bend in space time
for 3, the "north and south poles of the black hole"
are inverses of eachother
whereas, given north would expand spacetime
given south would shrink spacetime
then the nuetral area would be the disc that we typically see
the north side expands to alighn the matter on that side
with the correlating side of the disc
because of the shrink of spacetime on the south
it funnels all the matter into a stream that appears to be particles

[modest]

Originally Posted by Turtle

Roger. Now just to check here, because your second diagram is a bit confusing in this regard, the solar system is orbiting the galactic center counter-clockwise, oui/no?

Yes, I believe so. Clockwise in both pics. And, I should probably clarify (or at least give credit) the diagrams were not made by me, but came from this amateur radio astronomy type web page. But, I think, yes, the way the spirals are drawn in the second diagram would mean rotation would have to be clockwise.

~modest

EDIT: Wops, you said "counter-clockwise". I guess then, I disagree. Or, one of us is confused