Question

f our sun is 4.6 billion years old, how many times has it orbited the galaxy? you must show your work to receive credit.

Answer 1

The Sun, which is 4.6 billion years old, has completed approximately 20 galactic orbits around the Milky Way galaxy based on an orbit duration of about 225 million years per revolution.

Step-by-step explanation:

To answer your question about how many times our Sun has orbited the Milky Way galaxy if it is 4.6 billion years old, we will use the information that the Sun takes approximately 225 million years to complete one orbit around the center of the Milky Way galaxy. This period is often referred to as a galactic year.

To find the number of orbits, we divide the age of the Sun by the length of one galactic year:

Number of orbits = age of Sun / galactic year = 4.6 billion years / 225 million years = 20.44 orbits

Therefore, the Sun has completed approximately 20 orbits since it was formed. Note that this is an approximation and the actual number may vary slightly due to factors such as the non-circular nature of the Sun's orbit and changes in orbital speed over time.

Answer 2

20 times.

Step-by-step explanation:

Let's figure this out:

How many times has our Sun orbited the Milky Way?

Well, as the famous “Monty Python and the Meaning of Life” song says (this is from memory so I may have some words slightly wrong):

“Just remember that we’re standing on a planet that’s evolving, and revolving at 900 miles an hour,

That’s orbiting at 19 miles a second, so it’s reckoned, the Sun that is the source of all our power.

The Sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see are moving at a million miles a day in the outer spiral arm at 40 thousand miles an hour of the galaxy we call the Milky Way.

Our galaxy itself contains a million billion stars, it’s 200 thousand light years side to side.

It bulges in the middle 15 thousand light years thick, but by us it’s just three thousand light years wide.

we’re 50 thousand light years from galactic central point, we go round every 200 million years

and our galaxy itself is one of millions of billions in this amazing and expanding universe.”

So, from this song (which was pretty darned accurate for it’s time for a simple ditty in a comedy film - the only major blooper was the speed of light in the next verse given as “12 million miles a minute”, when it’s nearer to 11, but I guess it didn’t scan so well) you can take the line

“we go round every 200 million years” and take the approximate age of the solar system of 4.6 billion years. And divide one by the other. And you get about 23 circuits.

That’s only a rule of thumb, obviously, and no doubt someone will quote it to five decimal points in another answer!

Thanks.