mdk said
From a certain perspective maybe, like using some fixed point independent of galactic movements. Since 'our motion through space' is only really defined relative to other stars/galaxies, arguably we're *also* moving this direction, along with everything else.
You're right about there being movement in that direction, but that's not what I'm talking about being totally wrong in the gif. The main direction our solar system is moving is actually kinda like how it's shown in the gif, not with the planets kind of sidelong to the direction of motion how most people picture it. It's the planets that are totally fucked up, and I'm not talking about how he changed the shape and speed of the orbits to make it look smoother.
The Milky Way galaxy, which hopefully everyone knows is the galaxy our solar system is part of, is a ton of solar systems and lone stars spread out in a disc sort of shape (with a spiral structure, but that's not so important) that has a narrow (relative to the universe itself) plane in which all the solar systems and stars are dispersed. The planets going around the sun also have a rather narrow plane they travel in around the sun, with only a few degrees of deviation between one another, so those common (EDIT: less common than I thought, based on my inability to find a picture of it) science fair solar system models that show all the planets sitting on the same vertical level are actually pretty close to accurate. Our solar system moves through the galaxy not with the plane of the planetary orbits aligned to the plane of the galaxy, but rather tilted sideways, and as far .
However, what this gif gets fundamentally wrong is that the planets don't trail behind the sun the whole way. In actuality, the planets are sometimes behind the sun and sometimes in front of it. When comparing the orientation of the planes of the planetary orbits to the galaxy itself, it's about 60 degrees off from being aligned perpendicularly; the sun is moving along this galactic plane, so you can also look at it as the orbits being tweaked 60 degrees off of perpendicular with the direction the sun is moving. If you consider the direction the sun is moving in its galactic orbit to be its front, part of the planetary orbits take the planets out in front of the sun for a while, and on the other side of their orbit they're behind the sun, and in between those times there are points where you could say they're moving directly to the right or left of the sun.
That's what is super wrong about the gif. The planets aren't trailing behind the sun, nor are they moving on a plane completely perpendicular to the direction the sun is moving. I'm no astrophysicist, but I'm pretty sure that if the trailing action in the gif was happening in reality that'd mean the planets aren't firmly stuck in the gravitational pull of the sun and would be constantly moving farther away from it. Also, this is stuff we've known about for many years and has been rigorously verified both by terrestrial observation and through satellites and such. It's not some interesting take on perception, it's factually incorrect.
Awson said
Hey why don't you 3D render it the correct way then, big shot?
Because that sounds like a lot of work. Instead I'll go find the work of someone else who has done it.
Here we go, only shows 4 planets but it's accurate. I wish it gave a more steady side-on view instead of constantly rotating, and I wish it showed the elliptical orbits instead of using circles, but whatever, it serves well enough to show the tilt I'm talking about.
