Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

Ferociousfeind t1_j7gz5o3 wrote

There isn't a medium that the sun is moving through, nothing is dragging on its material like would produce "waves of fire" in its "path". The movement is imaginary- only real when you're measuring relative to other objects. No motion is universal, this is the big revelation of Einstein's theories of relativity.

42

starryeyes224 t1_j7h0sqw wrote

This doesn’t apply to Earth right? Especially since it does move - by revolving around the sun

2

Scro86 t1_j7h1elf wrote

It does apply to earth. All motion is relative to something else. How fast are you going right now? You may be sitting still and think, I’m not moving at all. Ok, but the earth is spinning, so now how fast are you going? Ok, but the earth is also rotating around the sun. It’s also part of the solar system, which is moving, but it’s also part of the Milky Way, which is moving. But it also is part of the universe, which is expanding. So how fast are you going? The only way to answer it is to measure your speed “relative” to another object

34

Medeaa t1_j7hdlrz wrote

This was such a good answer! Thank you!

2

Scro86 t1_j7hhk85 wrote

Thanks. I’m paraphrasing the explanation from a book called “Why does E=MC2?” By Dr. Brian Cox and Dr. Jeff Forshaw. The book is written to explain the theory of relativity in a way normal people can understand, and talks about the implications of that theory on the real world. Makes a hard topic easy and fun to understand, so if you are interested I highly recommend it.

2

Medeaa t1_j7hk815 wrote

Awesome I’ll for sure put that on my TBR

2

Ferociousfeind t1_j7h2j88 wrote

It applies to everything. If you fix earth in one universal place, the sun revolves around the earth. Nothing really makes sense, because there are phantom accelerations everywhere (because a more truthful model makes the sun stationary, since it is the much larger object, and experiences less acceleration than the earth does) but aside from those phantom accelerations, which are all real accelerations that the earth is experiencing, which we are applying to the rest of the universe to force earth to stay still, all the other math still checks out.

3

PogTuber t1_j7h75mu wrote

Sorta, we have indeed measured our motion and the motion of the galaxy against the CMB. That's the biggest "rest state" we can measure against.

1

DrHugh t1_j7gy28q wrote

Remember, the sun isn't on fire. It is a big fusion reaction, generating heat and light and other electromagnetic output.

24

ExtonGuy t1_j7gzznm wrote

No, the sun and the material in it does not feel any affects of the motion. As far as the sun and planets are concerned, there is no "ahead" or "behind" for the motion.

* For the nit-pickers out there: yes, there is tiny (and I do mean tiny) effect from galactic tides.

7

Tp_for_my_cornholio t1_j7h88zk wrote

Why do comets leave a path of ice in its wake? Isn’t that a similar idea?

2

ExtonGuy t1_j7hoh44 wrote

The ice tail from a comet is because the sunlight pushes on the ice. The tail always points away from the sun, no matter which way the comet is moving.

2

SymWizard07 t1_j7gyjcm wrote

There’s nothing in space to push away layers of the sun like that, like a ball of hardened sand through water.

4

Distwalker t1_j7gyihd wrote

The sun isn't moving except relative to other objects. It is as true to say it is stationary as it is to say it is moving.

2

thetimehascomeforyou t1_j7h0svj wrote

No. As others have said. The sun isn’t on fire and space is mostly empty, nothing pushing on the sun to leave a trail behind it.

2

GiraffeWithATophat t1_j7h1gkz wrote

Kinda sorta. Charged particles being emitted from the sun creates the heliosphere.

2

cjheaford t1_j7h1l44 wrote

Well, in a way maybe - but not like you think. It’s called the Solar Wind and it shoots out equally in all directions (usually) rather than leaving a path. It’s not fire(there is no fire on the sun) but it’s ionizing & non-ionizing radiation of many different types.

2

MantisToboganPilotMD t1_j7h1sdi wrote

there is a heliotail, which is a comet-like tail that is inflated by the solar wind of particles streaming off the sun, but it's more of a tail of the entire solar system than just streaming behind the sun like you might be thinking.

2

ExtonGuy t1_j7hp5qx wrote

The heliotail isn't comet-like. It's made up of particles from the sun, but it points in four directions, like a four-leaf clover. It is not affected by the sun's motion around the galaxy.

1

MantisToboganPilotMD t1_j7huabo wrote

The reason I relate it as such is because a comet’s tail doesn’t trail parallel to its trajectory, but rather parallel with the sun’s rays. As the heliotail’s orientation and shape are determined by the Interstellar Magnetic Field’s direction and strength

1

ExtonGuy t1_j7huxe3 wrote

I thought the heliotail's shape was more determined by the pattern of ejection from the sun. Faster particles from the poles, slower from the equator, in a "puffing" sequence.

1

MantisToboganPilotMD t1_j7i1nm2 wrote

I think you’re right about shape, but I thought the overall orientation/direction was as I said - I’m very happy to be corrected if I’m wrong.

1

a-guy-online t1_j7h2gqp wrote

Not so much a blaze of fire, but the Sun does shoot out particles constantly (mostly electrons and protons) in the solar wind. There's also solar flares, coronal mass elections, and solar energetic particle events that occur rather frequently.

The Sun does have a heliosphere, though, and it interacts with the interstellar medium (yes, there is a non-trivial amount of mass in the spaces between stars). Heliopause occurs when the pressure of the solar wind matches the pressure of the interstellar medium (at about 100 AU).

As the Sun travels through this interstellar medium, it leaves behind a heliotail that is the direction opposite the Sun's motion in the galaxy.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliosphere

2

KamikazeArchon t1_j7h2mff wrote

At a surface level: No. If you're imagining, say, a firework and the trail it leaves, with "sun-stuff" behind it - there's nothing like that. This has been covered in detail by other posts.

At a more detailed level: Yes-ish. The Sun is constantly emitting particles - not just massless light but also massive particles, the "solar wind". As the Sun (and the entire solar system) move through space, this creates a "wake" or elongated "bubble" called the heliosphere. Notably, this is much larger than just the Sun - all the solar system's planets are well inside the heliosphere. This diagram demonstrates the effect.

The heliosphere is invisible and undetectable to the naked eye or any "human-level" interaction; you need special equipment to detect the differences between it and the surrounding interstellar medium. From a human perspective they would both "feel" just like empty space.

1