explanation
You are here. The orange dot in the above false-color drawing [ http://astro.uchicago.edu/home/web/frisch/pictures.html ] represents the current location of the Sun [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970217.html ] among local gas clouds in the spiral [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap961030.html ] Milky Way Galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970517.html ]. These gas clouds are so thin that we usually see right through them. Nearly spherical bubbles surround regions of recent star formation [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970119.html ]. The purple filaments near the Sun [ http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/9710141 ] are gas shells resulting from star formation 4 million years ago in the Scorpius-Centaurus Association, located to the Sun's lower left. The Sun has been between spiral arms [ http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/9705231 ] moving through relatively low density gas for the past 5 million years. In contrast, the Sun [ http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/sol.html ] oscillates in the Milky Way plane [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap971229.html ] every 66 million years, and circles the Galactic Center [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970121.html ] every 250 million years.
Explanation
false