Missing Stars in the Solar Neighbourhood Reveal the Sun's Speed and Distance to the Centre of the Milky Way Galaxy

Dunlap Institute: A composite image shows the Gaia spacecraft against a backdrop of the Milky Way Galaxy. Image: ESA/ATG medialab; background image: ESO/S. Brunier [Toronto] Using a novel method and data from the Gaia space telescope, astronomers from the University of Toronto have estimated that the speed of the Sun as it orbits the centre of the Milky Way Galaxy is approximately 240 kilometres per second. In turn, they have used that result to calculate that the Sun is approximately 7.9 kilopa...