Astronomy’s Chris Mihos discusses research about whether galaxies orbit anything in the universe

Does the Milky Way orbit anything?

Live ScienceChris Mihos, professor of astronomy at the College of Arts and Sciences, discussed new research about whether galaxies—including our own Milky Way—orbit anything in the universe. Both the Milky Way and Andromeda are on mostly radial orbits. “Imagine the gravity of two things pulling on each other, and they’re not moving in any way other than the gravitational pull,” he said. “They will just move directly on the line towards each other. That’s a purely radial orbit.”