Ask HN: Why is our Galactic Coordinate System Centered on our Sun?(en.m.wikipedia.org)
en.m.wikipedia.org
Ask HN: Why is our Galactic Coordinate System Centered on our Sun?
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_coordinate_system
2 comments
Because we cannot travel out of the solar system.
Also note how astronomers use the parsec as unit (which depends only on the radius of Earth orbit, and has no other physical significance) instead of the light.year which is much more interesting a unit, for the would be astronaut.
Also note how astronomers use the parsec as unit (which depends only on the radius of Earth orbit, and has no other physical significance) instead of the light.year which is much more interesting a unit, for the would be astronaut.
Interstellar distances get more and more uncertain the further away things are from the Solar System. Using the Sun as the origin gives a built-in estimate of the error. If we used, say, the center of the galaxy as the origin then the uncertainty in its location would overwhelm any calculations about the distance from the Sun to, say, Barnard's Star.