How fast solar system moving

That's why cargo missions to the International Space Station, for example, launch from Florida. By doing so and launching in the same direction as Earth's spin, rockets get a speed boost to help them fly into space. Earth's spin, of course, is not the only motion we have in space.

We can calculate that with basic geometry. First, we have to figure out how far Earth travels. Earth takes about days to orbit the sun. The orbit is an ellipse, but to make the math simpler, let's say it's a circle. So, Earth's orbit is the circumference of a circle. The distance from Earth to the sun — called an astronomical unit — is 92,, miles ,, kilometers , according to the International Astronomers Union.

That is the radius r. So in one year, Earth travels about million miles million km. So, Earth travels about 1. Related: How Fast does Light Travel? The sun has an orbit of its own in the Milky Way. The sun is about 25, light-years from the center of the galaxy, and the Milky Way is at least , light-years across. We are thought to be about halfway out from the center, according to Stanford University.

Even at this rapid speed, the solar system would take about million years to travel all the way around the Milky Way. The Milky Way, too, moves in space relative to other galaxies.

In about 4 billion years, the Milky Way will collide with its nearest neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy. The two are rushing toward each other at about 70 miles per second km per second. There is no chance that you'll be flung off to space right now, because the Earth's gravity is so strong compared to its spinning motion. This latter motion is called centripetal acceleration. At its strongest point, which is at the equator, centripetal acceleration only counteracts Earth's gravity by about 0.

In other words, you don't even notice it, although you will weigh slightly less at the equator than at the poles. NASA says the probability for Earth stopping its spin is " practically zero " for the next few billion years. Theoretically, however, if the Earth did stop moving suddenly, there would be an awful effect. The atmosphere would still be moving at the original speed of the Earth's rotation. This means that everything would be swept off of land, including people, buildings and even trees, topsoil and rocks, NASA added.

What if the process was more gradual? If she looks at something more distant, like a mountain on the horizon, it moves a little slower because it's farther away than the buildings, but it still moves relative to her position.

Then there's the entire Milky Way, which is pulled in different directions by other massive structures, such as other galaxies and galaxy clusters. Just like scientists can tell that the solar system is moving based on the relative movement of other stars, they can use the relative movement of other galaxies to determine how fast the Milky Way is moving through the universe. Even though everything is moving all the time, living organisms on Earth's surface don't feel it for the same reason passengers on an airplane don't feel themselves zipping through the air at hundreds of miles an hour, Mack said.

When the plane lifts off, passengers feel the plane's acceleration as it speeds down the runway and lifts off; that weighted feeling is caused by the plane's quickly changing speed. But once the plane is flying at cruising altitude, passengers won't feel the speed of hundreds of miles per hour because the speed doesn't change. The passengers won't feel the speed because those passengers are actually moving at the same speed and direction, or velocity, as the airplane.

There's no relative motion — everyone sitting on the airplane is moving at the same speed as the airplane itself. The only way passengers might notice their and the plane's movement is by looking out the window at the passing landscape. For humans standing on the surface of our planet, they don't feel Earth hurtling around the sun because they're also hurtling around the sun at the same speed.

JoAnna Wendel is a freelance science writer living in Portland, Oregon. The CBR presently pervades all of space. It is the equivalent of the entire universe "glowing with heat. Because the CBR permeates all space, we can finally answer the original question fully, using the CBR as the frame of reference. The earth is moving with respect to the CBR at a speed of kilometers per second. We can also specify the direction relative to the CBR.

It is more fun, though, to look up into the night sky and find the constellation known as Leo the Lion. The earth is moving toward Leo at the dizzying speed of kilometers per second. It is fortunate that we won't hit anything out there during any of our lifetimes! Already a subscriber? Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue.