ANSWERS: 3
  • No - there is no such thing, to the best of my knowledge. The magnetic field we feel on earth is caused by the earth and as such it is really localized to us. Stars can have huge magnetic fields but the north/south poles exist on that star alone, e.g. the top and bottom of it. To get one continious magnetic field throughout, say, a solar system, you'd need a huge continous magnet, imagine a huge bar magnet. This is due to the lack of a magnetic monopole (currently). East and west are completely arbitary lines, only invented because they are perpendicular to the actual poles
  • There is a galactic co-ordinate system which defines a north ans south pole and a zero of longitude - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_coordinate_system . One could in principle derive East and West from the longitude, but I have never seen them used. I have seen the nort and south directions and poles referred to.
  • North, South, East and West have nothing to do with magnetic fields. We use a magnetic compass just as a navigation tool, because the magnetic poles are kind of almost lined up with the geographic poles. Looking at the North Pole from above, the Earth rotates in a counter-clockwise direction. Looking at the Solar System from above the Solar North Pole, the planets rotate in a counter-clockwise direction. But the Galaxy is the opposite. For some reason astronomers define the Galactic North Pole with the stars rotating in a clockwise direction. I assume all the galaxies in the universe must also be rotating as the universe turns. But how can someone measure that? You'd have to see something outside and beyond the universe, to observe the rotation of the universe against it. And the universe holds everything. There is nothing else! More info from https://seds.org/Messier/more/mw.html Our solar system is situated within the outer regions of [the Milky Way] galaxy, well within the [galactic] disk and only about 20 light years "above" the equatorial symmetry plane (to the direction of the Galactic North Pole), but about 28,000 light years from the Galactic Center. ... Our Sun, together with the whole Solar System, is orbiting the Galactic Center... on a nearly circular orbit. We are moving at about 250 km/sec, and need about 220 million years to complete one orbit (so the Solar System has orbited the Galactic Center about 20 to 21 times since its formation about 4.6 billion years ago).

Copyright 2023, Wired Ivy, LLC

Answerbag | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy