I Didn’t Know That

Q: How fast are we moving through space?

A: A spot on the Earth’s equator covers about 25,000 miles (the Earth’s circumference) in a day, making its speed about 17 miles per second. The Earth travels more than 580 million miles in its yearly voyage around the sun, an additional 18 miles per second. The whole solar system travels almost 1 quintillion miles during the 24 million years required for one rotation around the galactic center, about 125 miles per second. And finally, the entire Milky Way galaxy is moving toward the great Virgo cluster of galaxies at about 200 miles per second.