The Solar System is located

The Solar System is located in the Milky Way galaxy, a barred spiral galaxy with a diameter of about 100,000 light-years containing about 200 billion stars.[91] Our Sun resides in one of the Milky Way's outer spiral arms, known as the Orion Arm or Local Spur.[92] The Sun lies between 25,000 and 28,000 light years from the Galactic Centre ,[93] and its speed within the galaxy is about 220 kilometres per second , so that it completes one revolution every 225–250 million years. This revolution is known as the Solar System's galactic year .[94] The solar apex, the direction of the Sun's path through interstellar space, is near the constellation of Hercules in the direction of the current location of the bright star Vega .[95] The plane of the Solar System's ecliptic lies nearly at right angles (86.5°) to the galactic plane .[96]

The Solar System's location in the galaxy is very likely a factor in the evolution of life on Earth. Its orbit is close to being circular and is at roughly the same speed as that of the spiral arms, which means it passes through them only rarely. Since spiral arms are home to a far larger concentration of potentially dangerous supernovae, this has given Earth long periods of interstellar stability for life to evolve.[97] The Solar System also lies well outside the star-crowded environs of the galactic centre. Near the centre, gravitational tugs from nearby stars could perturb bodies in the Oort Cloud and send many comets into the inner Solar System, producing collisions with potentially catastrophic implications for life on Earth. The intense radiation of the galactic centre could also interfere with the development of complex life.[97] Even at the Solar System's current location, some scientists have hypothesised that recent supernovae may have adversely affected life in the last 35,000 years by flinging pieces of expelled stellar core towards the Sun as radioactive dust grains and larger, comet-like bodies.[98]