One topic astronomers don't talk about very much is how fast things move in outer space. I'm sure most of you reading this have either driven a car or taken a ride on a roller coaster and felt how fast ~60mph is. You're hair's blown back, your face forced into a smile, trying not to scream as your flying down the roller coaster hill. It's really fast from a human perspective! Yet believe it or not, you're actually moving much faster than that all the time, and you don't even realize it! Everything in the universe is moving, including Earth, the Sun and the Milky Way. Below is a list of speeds (in miles per hour) that these objects are moving at, just to put things into perspective….
- The Earth spins on it's axis at a speed of 1,040 mph
- The Earth orbits around the Sun at 66,615 mph
- The Sun and our solar system orbit the center of the Milky Way at 447,387 mph
- Our Milky Way galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy are hurling towards each other at 310,685 mph
- The universe is expanding at a rate of ~180,000 mph
And you thought airplanes and rocket ships moved fast! Now do you agree with me that the universe needs a speeding ticket?!
