Galaxy Project Part II, Wandering Stars

Part 2 of the Basement’s Galaxy Class Series. What do we know about our Sun’s motion through the Galaxy? Within the last century mankind has begun to realize that the steady, dependable stars of the night time sky are not fixed in place (as had been thought for millennia), but are traveling relative to our Sun, and to each other, at remarkable speeds. The most recent observation program (Hipparcos) has precisely measured the motions of over 100,000 stars (with a billion stars to be measured in the coming years). We are getting better and more precise descriptions than ever before, but do we have the scientific minds, like Kepler, to discover the underling principles?

The material covered in this class is also addressed in the written pedagogy: Towards a Galactic Science Driver: The Solar System’s Motion Through the Galaxy • Part 1