this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2026
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Science Memes

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[–] Zwiebel@feddit.org 100 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Uhhm guyss shes just taking us around the galaxy

[–] shneancy@lemmy.world 54 points 2 months ago (3 children)

and where is the galaxy taking us then?

[–] IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works 77 points 2 months ago

To visit/fistfight the Andromeda galaxy.

[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 50 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

to the Great Attractor

Through a series of peculiar velocity tests, astrophysicists found that the Milky Way was moving in the direction of the constellation of Centaurus at about 600 km/s. [citation needed] Then, the discovery of cosmic microwave background (CMB) dipoles was used to reflect the motion of the Local Group of galaxies towards the Great Attractor.[8] The 1980s brought many discoveries about the Great Attractor, such as the fact that the Milky Way is not the only galaxy impacted. Approximately 400 elliptical galaxies are moving toward the Great Attractor beyond the Zone of Avoidance caused by the Milky Way galaxy light.

We're actually traveling with a lot of friends through the immeasurable heavens.

[–] SlackerPreface57@feddit.online 10 points 2 months ago (2 children)

The Great Attractor is actually a giant construct to escape the universe. https://xeelee.fandom.com/wiki/Bolder%27s_Ring

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[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Not sure I like the sound of that.

[–] metallic_z3r0@infosec.pub 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's ok, the universe is expanding faster than the Milky Way can be attracted.

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[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 6 points 2 months ago

but it's so attractive

[–] FilthyShrooms@lemmy.world 17 points 2 months ago (4 children)
[–] Una 13 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Andromeda and Milky way might marry each other and become one flesh and one soul like Jesus Christ intended it to be.

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[–] 0ops@piefed.zip 71 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Sun: "Hey, do you want toooo... go for a walk?"

Planets: go apeshit

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Based on how Earth is doing, she might be taking us to the big farm upstate. :(

[–] flying_sheep@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Earth is fine, it's seen worse than humanity. Geology doesn't care about what biology does.

[–] Artemis_Mystique@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 months ago

We can make it care, just got to tell old donny up in the whitehouse that something doesn't care about his wishes.

[–] Noite_Etion@lemmy.world 49 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

And like all good mothers one day she will grow into a red giant, engulfing her children and obliterating all life on earth.

That is the true meaning of mothers day ❤️

[–] ZombieMantis@lemmy.world 43 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Did everyone forget about the galaxy? It's also a giant circle, and the sun orbits it like we orbit the sun.

Perhaps the real question should be "Where is the Galaxy taking us?"

[–] Thorry@feddit.org 13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Fun fact, we do not just orbit the galaxy in a circle, we also have a motion perpendicular to that circle. We oscillate up and down through the plane of the Milky Way. The Milky Way is super thin, like super ultra thin. If the Milky Way were a pancake, it would only be the thickness of a sheet of paper, a sad pancake indeed. However in terms of human scales it is still huge, so we have a large way to travel. Our galactic orbit is tilted as compared to the galactic plane, so throughout the cosmic year we move up and down as compared to the center. A motion of 100-200 light year, so pretty big. That orbit also has procession, so we move through different parts.

The galaxy itself is also moving, although at that scale it's easier to think of the galaxy to be stationary and other galaxies moving towards or away from us. In general we are all moving towards a galaxy cluster known as "The Great Attractor" as it is the most massive (except for your mom).

It's also often forgotten that our sun isn't the only star moving in the galaxy. All of the stars orbit the galaxy in a lot of different orbits. And some don't orbit at all, instead moving with escape velocity (or faster) to get flung outside of our galaxy. Some have their own orbit in companion dwarf galaxies that in turn orbit our own galaxy. It's easy to think of a galaxy as a fixed thing, with all the stars in the same place moving together like on a disk. But this isn't the case at all, stars aren't bound together and can follow their own path. Over time their relative positions change and the constellations we know won't exist anymore.

The structures we see in galaxies like spiral arms for example are only structures in the same way a wave in the ocean is a structure. It is clearly a thing that exists, with properties we can at least somewhat constrain (like size for example). But the water inside that wave is just water like everywhere else. At one point it's part of the wave and then at some point it no longer is. It's the same for stars, sometimes part of a structure, other times not (although it gets complicated quickly if you dig into the details)

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's called a crepe and they are DELICIOUS.

[–] Wav_function@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Praise skycrepe

[–] RedSnt@feddit.dk 6 points 2 months ago

As far as I know we're headed toward another galaxy. Luckily we'll all by long gone by the time that collision happens.

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[–] scala@lemmy.ml 24 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)
[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 6 points 2 months ago (9 children)

There's also no reason to believe that expansion isn't happening in a spheroid pattern. The big bang wouldn't have been like a blunderbuss, more like a naval mine suspended in the abyss, exploding in all directions.

For that matter, did the big bang ever cease, or has it continued to spew out new energy, and we're just so inconceivably far out that our entire observable universe is just one small section of a relatively narrow range of distance from the center?

Lastly, if the big bang is like a faucet, what if black holes are like drains in a tub, or in other words wormholes leading back to whatever realm everything came from before being spewed out by the big bang?

Everything in the universe is cyclical; there's no way something doesn't complete the circuit, even if it's just a big crunch.

[–] Donkter@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago (3 children)

This model does assume the big bang happened in a spheroid pattern. It's just flattened to add time as an axis from left to right cause you couldn't represent time otherwise.

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[–] Zink@programming.dev 16 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Fun, fun, we skip along together!

Swirling towards the center...

Where there is no pain and we are truly together, forever.

...

Eat at Arby's

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[–] Liz@midwest.social 13 points 2 months ago (3 children)

It's my understanding that the specific direction on this relative motion graphic is just made-up, but it does do a good job of reminding people that we're orbiting the galactic center.

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[–] ZkhqrD5o@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The fun stops when you find out about Sagittarius A.

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[–] Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 2 months ago

That's not Mama, that's our son!

[–] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 months ago

The sun is not a sweet mother, he is armed with the great serpent Xiuhcoatl and demands the hearts of our enemies.

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 11 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I mean its kinda terrifying when you think about it from the perspective of someone who grew up in an abusive household

"You will never leave my control"

Either you get tossed to the curb by mom and you are cold and alone after being so used to the warmth and the plant is dead (flung out of orbit), or get murdered by her (red giant... engulf the system)

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[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Does the sun actually travel in a straight line, or do the orbits of the planets wobble it, and to what extent?

[–] rImITywR@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Everything in the solar system (even the Son) orbit around the center of mass of everything in the solar system. This epicenter is just outside of the Son, on the side that Jupiter is. So the Son wobbles by a little bit more than 1 of its radii.

[–] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 9 points 2 months ago

Sun, I am disappoint.

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[–] tomiant@piefed.social 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

I am under the impression that straight lines don't really exist in the Universe.

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[–] zen@lemmy.zip 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

What if Sol is not our Mama, but our Pied Piper? 🎺

[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 7 points 2 months ago

Probably true for Pluto.

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[–] hesh@quokk.au 6 points 2 months ago

Just a loop around Sag A*

[–] Gladaed@feddit.org 6 points 2 months ago (4 children)

The sun is literally having zero part in this. We would still circle around the galaxy in the same way without her. Only orbits would change a bit.

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[–] expatriado@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

i see, that's why the ecliptic and the milky way don't align on the sky

[–] stiffyGlitch@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (6 children)

ok! time for all those years of science to finally pay off:

Would you still love "her" if you knew that, every single second, thousands of waves of extreme radiation from the Sun, traveling at a million light-years per millisecond, hits our planet's atmosphere? These waves slowly erode one of the only protections that we have against the Sun. But don't worry, this planet has several more tricks up -- and under -- the crust of the Earth. The iron core of the earth emits a geomagnetic field that extends into space, creating a region called the magnetosphere. This magnetosphere blocks most of the Sun's deadly rays, deflecting them back into space.

(also I didn't get this off of Google. I just have a really good memory. also I added the bolded words)

[–] xthexder@l.sw0.com 13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

traveling at a million light-years per millisecond

You're only off by a factor of about 30 quadrillion.

Light (famously a type of radiation), takes 1 year to travel a light-year, hence the name.

If you want to make it sound impressive, then astronomical units aren't the right choice. The sun is only 1 AU away from us after all.

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[–] massacre@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

million light-years per millisecond

Gonna need a citation on that one! ;)

kidding aside, Mars is a great example of what will happen to Earth should our core stop generating our magnetic field. Also... Auroras!

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