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For centuries, the functioning of the solar system awakens humanity's curiosity. Proof of this is the countless research and audiovisual productions on the topic published annually, whether in academic, cinematographic or social media environments. And it was precisely on social media that a publication on the topic aroused the curiosity of several people.
The solar system like you've never seen it before
In a few seconds, and without further explanation, an animation published as reels shows two ways in which the solar system. Firstly, the solar system as he is commonly known with the saying: “how do people think the solar system”. Up to this point, nothing new.
However, in the second part, the video compares and suggests a vortex-shaped operation, characterized by fast and circular movements of the planets and the Sun. The animation was published on Instagram and TikTok in 2019, however, occasionally, it returns to appear on the networks
But, is this true? Could it be that the Sun and planets work differently than we have learned? Throughout this article we will explain why the video is not completely wrong.
How does the solar system work?
First of all, we need to understand what our galaxy is and how it works. And let's start with the Solar System as a whole.
According to estimates by scientists and researchers, our Solar System was formed around 4,6 billion years ago. Currently, the most accepted hypothesis about the emergence of the universe is the Fuzzy Theory, presented by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, in 1755, and developed by the French mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace, decades later (1796).
According to the hypothesis, the solar system was formed after the collapse of a cloud of dust and gas originating from the explosion of a nearby star. The gravitational attraction of the core of this cloud, or rather, this nebula, began to gather material, until the internal pressure became gigantic.
It was during this period that hydrogen atoms began to fuse, giving rise to helium and triggering an immense release of energy. This is how the Sun, which absorbed more than 99% of the available matter, was born.
“A large part of this matter, the densest, was taken to the Sun, forming the star. It takes a lot of concentrated matter to form a star and the rarefied part clumped together and formed planets and asteroids”, explains the professor at Department of Physics at the Federal University of Espírito Santo (Ufes) and vice president of Astrophysics and Cosmology Center (Cosmo/Ufes), Davi Rodrigues.
The Sun's great concentration of mass generates gravitational energy that makes the planets orbit the Sun. According to Kepler's theory, considering the Sun as a fixed reference frame, the planets have uniform circular movement around it.
Another theory that explains how planets work is Newtonian Gravitation. According to the theory, developed by Isaac Newton, the force of gravity between bodies with mass is always attractive and inversely proportional to the distance between them.
“If, for example, there was a planet and it was at rest in relation to the Sun, what would happen to it? Due to the gravitational force, it would simply fall into the Sun. But the planets do not have this property, they are not heading towards the Star, they are rotating around the Sun”, explains Davi Rodrigues.
That said, the question that arises is how bodies can maintain this rotation without colliding with the Sun. According to Ufes professor Davi Rodrigues, the solar system was formed not from matter that was stationary in relation to the Sun, but from of matter that had a certain angular momentum — they were rotating at the time they were formed — so everything was spinning.
Organization of planets in the Sun's orbit
As mentioned above, the planets are made up of mass, however, with different quantities. For example, Mercury, which is very close to the Sun, has a smaller amount of matter compared to Earth.
Davi Rodrigues explains that as you move away from the Floorsaws it is possible to find planets more massive than the Star. Another clear example of this is Jupiter, the most massive planet in the solar system, which is furthest from the Sun. After it there are planets with smaller masses.
Davi Rodrigues explains that the issue of the masses of the planets is not the main factor in justifying their organization around the Sun. “In fact, we know of other star systems, with super massive planets, like Jupiter, which is very close to the Star ", it says.
“Now one property they have is that the further away the Sun is, the main mass, the lower the rotation speed. In other words, Mercury has to rotate very quickly. While those further away turn more slowly”, he points out.
It's a matter of reference
To understand whether or not the Sun, as presented in the video, is moving in relation to the planets, it is necessary to understand which reference frame is used to establish who is moving in relation to whom.
In physics, the reference frame is a body or a location used to know whether another body or object is in motion or not. “A material point is in movement in relation to a reference when its position varies over time in relation to this reference”, explains a publication from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS).
Likewise, according to UFRGS, the material point may be considered at rest in relation to the reference frame when the position does not vary over time.
“Imagine, for example, that you are in a spacecraft close to the sun. You are at rest relative to the Sun. So what would you expect? What would you see? You would see the Sun standing still, as the spacecraft is at rest in relation to it, and the planets would be rotating around the Sun. Now imagine that you take this spacecraft and start to leave at high speed, leaving the solar system. What will you see? The same image as the video. In other words, you will see the sun walking with the planets rotating around it.”
Davi Rodrigues, professor in the Department of Physics at Ufes
In the first part of the video, the image that appears is familiar, the Sun in the center and the planets rotating around the star. Again, that representation depends on the frame of reference, which could, for example, have been a spacecraft leaving the Milky Way
“If it were possible to leave our galaxy, we would see how the solar system works like that: a bunch of matter rotating around the center of the galaxy and the Earth in the middle”, says Davi Rodrigues.
The rotation of the Sun in the galaxy
The functioning of the galaxy, more specifically the Milky Way, is not very different from the functioning of our solar system. Changing the frame of reference given in the previous example, and using the Milky Way as a frame of reference, the Sun is moving in relation to the galaxy.
In other words, in the same way that the planets revolve around the Sun, it also revolves around something, in this case, around the center of the galaxy.
According to Davi Rodrigues, in the same way that the planets revolve around the Star, due to gravitational force, the Sun follows the same logic by rotating in the center of the galaxy. “The galaxy has a much greater amount of matter than the solar system,” he explains. The proof of this large amount of matter is explained with the fuzzy theory.
The difference is that in the solar system practically all the mass is concentrated in the Sun and the most massive planet, Jupiter, in this case. In the galaxy, there is no gravitational source so concentrated that it dominates the entire Milky Way.
Davi Rodrigues explains that it is not yet possible to leave the Milky Way to observe it from the outside, however, we can observe other galaxies and notice that they look like a disc. “Normally it is a luminous structure, like a disc. There are galaxies that are more different, but there are galaxies that are more similar to the Milky Way,” he says.
In of functioning, galaxies have the same modus operandi, that is, the stars are rotating around the galaxy. “Most of the matter is from stars and these stars are rotating”, he concludes.
But after all, is the video true? Is the solar system a vortex?
The video is not wrong. However, stating that the solar system works in the form of a vortex, as shown in the second part of the video, without explaining which reference frame is used, can make the information erroneous.
See also:
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Sources: Professor Davi Rodrigues, National Geographic Brazil, unesp, UFSM, Brazil School, UFRGS
reviewed by Glaucon Vital in 21 / 9 / 23.
