Our Solar System’s Journey Through the Milky Way
The Solar System travels through the Milky Way together inside a huge, invisible bubble called the heliosphere.
9/20/2026The entire Solar System speeds through the Milky Way, carrying Earth and all the other planets along with it. The Sun circles the center of the Galaxy at about 220–240 km/s, or more than 800,000 km/h. One complete trip takes roughly 230 million years.
That means our Solar System has circled the Milky Way only about 20 times since the Sun formed.
On this journey, the Sun carries a huge invisible “bubble” called the heliosphere, made by the solar wind and magnetic field. It stretches far beyond Pluto’s orbit and separates the Sun-dominated region from interstellar matter. The heliosphere reduces the number of high-energy cosmic rays reaching the inner Solar System from the Galaxy, though it does not stop them completely. So Earth travels not only around the Sun—it also takes part in a giant trip through the Milky Way with the whole heliosphere.