So here we are spinning round and round at about 1000 mph on a “mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.” Encircling a star, our sun, at 67,000 mph or thereabouts. The sun has an orbit of its own in the galaxy (Milky Way), it’s about 25,000 light-years from the centre of the galaxy, and the Milky Way is at least 100,000 light-years across. We are thought to be about halfway out from the centre, according to Stanford University. The sun, the solar system and our “mote of dust”, appear to be moving at an average speed of 448,000 mph (720,000 km/h). Even at this speed, it would take about 230 million years for us 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 neighbour, the Andromeda Galaxy. The two are rushing toward each other at about 70 miles per second (112 km per second).Carl Sagan on The Pale Blue Dot. “Everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives” on this “mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”
How fast is the earth moving?