When viewed from above, i.e., looking down from the North Galactic Pole towards the South Galactic Pole, does the sun rotate clockwise or counterclockwise around the Galactic center?
1 Answer
Backer and Sramek 1999 observed that relative to more distant radio sources, the galactic center Sgr A* had a heliocentric proper motion of about -6 milliarcseconds per year in galactic longitude. Reid et al. 1999 reported a similar result. Looking from NGP to SGP, galactic longitude increases counterclockwise, a decrease in longitude is a clockwise motion, and the Sun revolves clockwise around the galactic center.