<p>There's a whole stream of them: <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aadba3" rel="noreferrer">https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aadba3</a></p>
<p>Named Phlegethon, this is a stellar stream that covers about 75⁰ of the sky, and is probably the remnants of a disrupted globular cluster.</p>
<p>It orbits the galaxy retrograde on orbits that take it between 4.9 and 19.8 kpc from the galactic centre. The orbits are highly non-Keplarian. The image shows the orbits with the sun marked as a yellow dot.</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/ZrCBZ.png" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/ZrCBZ.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<p>Other streams exist and may have similar shaped orbits.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-01-04T20:26:18.097Z
2021-01-04T20:26:18.097Z
James K
<p>Our <a href="https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/21222/is-the-sun-prograde-or-retrograde-with-respect-to-the-rotation-of-the-milky-way">Sun is moving in a prograde orbit</a> around the galactic center with a distance of about <a href="https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/features/cosmic/milkyway_info.html" rel="noreferrer">8 kpc</a>.  <a href="https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0706/0706.3005.pdf" rel="noreferrer">This paper</a> says there are many retrograde stars in the galactic halo 10-20 kpc from the galactic center.  Do any of these retrograde stars have an extremely eccentric orbit that would cause them to pass closer to the galactic center than our Sun?</p>

<star><milky-way><retrograde-orbit>
Is there a retrograde star that passes closer to the galactic center than our Sun?
Connor Garcia
# Is there a retrograde star that passes closer to the galactic center than our Sun?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-01-04)

Our [Sun is moving in a prograde orbit](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/21222/is-the-sun-prograde-or-retrograde-with-respect-to-the-rotation-of-the-milky-way) around the galactic center with a distance of about [8 kpc](https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/features/cosmic/milkyway_info.html). [This paper](https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0706/0706.3005.pdf) says there are many retrograde stars in the galactic halo 10-20 kpc from the galactic center. Do any of these retrograde stars have an extremely eccentric orbit that would cause them to pass closer to the galactic center than our Sun?

**Tags:** star, milky-way, retrograde-orbit


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2021-01-04. Score: 8 | Accepted answer

There's a whole stream of them: <https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aadba3>

Named Phlegethon, this is a stellar stream that covers about 75⁰ of the sky, and is probably the remnants of a disrupted globular cluster.

It orbits the galaxy retrograde on orbits that take it between 4.9 and 19.8 kpc from the galactic centre. The orbits are highly non-Keplarian. The image shows the orbits with the sun marked as a yellow dot.

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/ZrCBZ.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/ZrCBZ.png)

Other streams exist and may have similar shaped orbits.


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