Quote:
Originally Posted by foreignkid
Will the sun ever, EVER, reach a point closer to the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy, or will it have "died" by then? In other words, is the sun's orbit elliptical, like a comet's (a bit exagerated), or is it more of a circle
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More like a circle, if
this animation is to be believed, from
Space.com: The Crazy Cosmos: Stars Near Sun are Wild & Wayward.
Some of the Suns current neighbors appear to be on much more elliptical paths.
But, who knows about the future? All it takes is a close-encounter perturbation some time in the remaining dozens of trips around the Galactic Center, for the Sun's circular path to become more elliptical.