The Sun's Journey: Circumnavigating the Milky Way

The sun and our solar system are constantly moving through the Milky Way, orbiting the supermassive black hole at the galaxy's center. It takes around 230 million years for the sun to complete one trip around the Milky Way, and if its orbital pathway remained constant, it would have completed around 20 trips. However, the sun's orbit has likely changed over its lifetime due to radial migration, where stars are pushed along the galaxy's spiral arms. The sun was probably born closer to the galactic center and has migrated outward over billions of years. The exact number of times the sun has traveled around the Milky Way is uncertain, but it is believed to be more than the estimated 20 trips.