The Sun moves in a roughly circular orbit around the galaxy at a distance of 26, 500 light-years. The orbital speed is roughly 230 km/s and its orbital period is about 240 million years.
The Moon makes a complete orbit around the Earth every 27.3 days. This is called a sidereal month.
yes true, but the question is whether this interpretation could fit in the ayat?
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The translation "overtake" is not very accurate. A better word, IMHO, is "catch up with". As such the sun indeed has never caught up with the moon: they never touched or collided and that's because "each in its orbit swims!"
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Catch up never means colliding.
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That's not important! The Sahaaba did not know anything about science and in fact verses like this one are what compelled them to study astronomy, math, etc. precisely to understand.
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makes sense..
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Not directly but implicitly. The rotation of the earth is what causes day and night! Another knowledge-appetite wetter
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in fact Koran says otherwise.
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Then they would be wrong comments, because the verses clearly mention four phenomena: the sun, the moon, the day and the night. "Kull" can only mean "all". "Both" is "Kilaahuma.
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Is it incorrect to use KUL for 'two' in arabic? and what could orbit mean for day/night?
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Again, not directly because people at the time had no way of verifying it but could clearly see the sun and the moon moving about. The two verses that mention the word "Falak" (orbit) both include the day and the night in the orbit that they swim. That's food for thought for the curious.
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im not sure whether you mean the word 'orbit' applies only to the sun and the moon or the nigh/day as well, since you say KUL does not mean 'both' here. What could orbit mean for day/night?
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That's alignment, not catching up!
And Allah swt knows best!
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Catching up does not mean colliding. Two cars in a drag race can catch up without colliding. Alignment and catching up is the same thing here isnt it? To 'catch up' means to get alongside! not collide. for the obverser on earth, the solar eclipse is a 'catch up' of the sun and the moon. isnt it?
very interesting reply btw.. really did help clear a few things! and we can discuss mountain verse (27:88) some other time.