THE EARTH
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Zoom Astronomy THE EARTH |
Back to the Planets |
You can't measure the speed of an object by itself, it has to be measured relative to something else (this was one of Einstein's realizations).
| •How fast is the Earth spinning? | 0.5 km/sec |
| •How fast is the Earth revolving around the Sun? | 30 km/sec |
| •How fast is the Solar System moving around the Milky Way Galaxy? | 250 km/sec |
| •How fast is our Milky Way Galaxy moving in the Local Group of galaxies? | 300 km/sec |
The Earth is spinning around its axis. At the equator, the Earth's surface moves 40,000 kilometers in 24 hours. That is a speed of about 1040 miles/hr (1670 km/hr or 0.5 km/sec). This is calculated by dividing the circumference of the Earth at the equator (about 24,900 miles or 40,070 km) by the number of hours in a day (24). As you move toward either pole, this speed decreases to almost zero (since the circumference of the spinning circle at the extreme latitudes approaches zero).
The Earth orbits, on average, 93 million miles (149,600,000 km) from the Sun (this distance is defined as one Astronomical Unit (AU)), taking one year to complete an orbit. The Earth revolves around the Sun at a speed of about 18.5 miles/sec (30 km/sec).
The sun is about 26,000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, which is about 80,000 to 120,000 light-years across (and less than 7,000 light-years thick). We are located on on one of its spiral arms, out towards the edge. It takes the sun (and our solar system) roughly 200-250 million years to orbit once around the Milky Way. In this orbit, we (and the rest of the Solar System) are traveling at a velocity of about 155 miles/sec (250 km/sec).
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