Galactic status of the Sun

Abstract

The so-called theory of stellar orbit diffusion along the Galactic radius is analysed. It is shown that, at present, there is no strong chemical evidence that the Sun was born about 2 kpc closer to the Galactic centre than its current location in the Galaxy. A new mechanism for large and rapid radial wandering of a star due to resonant interaction with the Galactic spiral density waves at the corotation is considered. The influence of spiral arms and the corotation resonance on the evolution of chemical pattern of the Galactic disc is discussed.