The Galaxy is a huge pinwheel of billions of stars and, li?:e a pinwheel, it rotates around and around. All the stars, including our sun, swing around like sparks in the spinning wheel. Our sun is about two thirds of the distance from the center to the rim of the Big Wheel and for this reason it rotates faster than some of the stars near the hub.

The sun and its family move around the galaxy at about 170 miles a second and one complete turn around the big Wheel takes millions of years. This long, long trip is called the Cosmic Year.