Is it true that the Earth doesn't actually orbit the Sun but rather the Earth chases the Sun in a corkscrew motion?
Posted by: Ronik Negi
27th April 2022
The animations you’ve seen on the internet are compelling but they give a really unrealistic view of how the planets orbit the Sun. If the did orbit it in that wild corkscrew way then what of the other solar systems that we aren’t facing face on like we are. How do THEY orbit their home star?
The problem comes from this animation:
It doesn’t look like this. Like at all. The orbits are obviously too small. But that could be just to show them all on screen. No. It’s like the old model of the solar system, you know, this one.
But it’s in effect turned about 60 degrees with respect to the galactic plane. So it’s more like this:
The planets do trail the Sun… if you were looking at it as we are in the drawing above. And sometimes they’re leading it again you can see in the image above. The guy that made that video up top misunderstood how it all worked. The Sun does move in a kind a “wave” around the galaxy. But it moves like this:
Every 60 million years or so it’s above the galactic plane and then for another 60 million years it’s below it. Think of it as a carousel. It moves up and down as it travels around the galaxy.
So no it doesn’t move that way… unless you look at it very carefully in a very specific way.
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