Are We Really Moving At These Amazing Speeds Through Outer Space?

Heres some amazing facts about the speed of outer space...

The earth rotates around its axis at a speed of 1,000 mph and even moving at that very fast speed,it takes the earth 24 hours to revolve around itself just once...

The earth orbits around the sun at a speed of 67,000 mph and even moving at that incredible speed, it takes the earth 365 days to go around the sun just once...

Our solar system revolves around and through the milkyway galaxy at a speed of 550,000 mph and even moving at that mind bending speed,it takes our solar system 225 million years to revolve just once around and through the milkyway galaxy...

Our milkyway galaxy is moving through the universe at a speed of 2,237,000 mph...

The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second,which is 670,616,629 mph...

Now walk outside and does it feel and look like we're really moving that fast?...No

Now look up out into the star filled night time sky and does it feel and look like eveything you see up there is really moving at those almost incomprehensible speeds?...No

So are we really?...I dont know?...But thats what they're telling us...

Throw on that the Galaxy itself is moving about 1,342,161.78 miles an hour in it's own direction.

whoa that makes a wicked speeding ticket

Originally posted by Foxe
Throw on that the Galaxy itself is moving about 1,342,161.78 miles an hour in it's own direction.

My computer crashed when i was only half way finished with my opening post and it took about ten minutes for me to fix it...modern day progress?...but its completed now and i added in some more velocities...

Milky Way moves at 300 km/second with respect to cosmic microwave background.

The answer is: Yes, we are moving at those speeds.

However, remember that time and space is relative, and that velocity is greatly more so depending on your perspective.

For example, the earth moving at 1000 mph as it rotates on its axis is pretty much completely unnoticeable due to the mass of the earth in comparison to your body. Mass of the objects that are moving affects the objects in motion, I believe this is part of the theory of relativity.

It might be because everything else is moving around the same speed also. Think of it as if your driving on the freeway at 70 mph and you pass another vehicle that is going 65 mph. If your looking at only the other vehicle and not the road or backgraound if will seem your only moving acouple Mph. Not sure if the same applies to Celestial body's but thats just my two cents.

reply to post by massiveffect


Bingo, that's it in a nutshell.

When you look up at the night sky, everything appears still because they too are all moving and as most are stars within our own Galaxy (that can be seen with the naked eye), we're all locked into the same merry dance.

That said, if you look up at the night sky for long enough, stuff does move due to the planetary rotation.

Originally posted by Holodomor
The answer is: Yes, we are moving at those speeds.

However, remember that time and space is relative, and that velocity is greatly more so depending on your perspective.

For example, the earth moving at 1000 mph as it rotates on its axis is pretty much completely unnoticeable due to the mass of the earth in comparison to your body. Mass of the objects that are moving affects the objects in motion, I believe this is part of the theory of relativity.

I can tell you truly, as i was in recovery after a brain hemorrhage & coma...while still in a death-watch room
i still had some lucidity and even had visitors...

i had a real feeling of movement, i was actually aware that the Earth was spinning and even in the still room, i could internally hear the wind 'wooshing' and for the next 5 months in recovery although in a wheel chair...I had trouble with balancing myself and i tried to orient myself with the Spin of the Earth


Its my theory that my brain was recalling the 9 months in the womb and this future person's getting acclimated to the Earth's rotation along with up-&-down...

just as the next 3-4 years i could 'see' the analogy of repeating my stages of growth to the point of unaided walking again...

i would swear under oath that I had to re-learn to function in a gravity world that was spinning extremely fast (~1000 MPH as you say) - that's not relativity, that is a learned condition of adjusting one's senses to the world in which we thrive

Originally posted by massiveffect
It might be because everything else is moving around the same speed also. Think of it as if your driving on the freeway at 70 mph and you pass another vehicle that is going 65 mph. If your looking at only the other vehicle and not the road or backgraound if will seem your only moving acouple Mph. Not sure if the same applies to Celestial body's but thats just my two cents.

I hear what your saying and i know exactly what you mean...

But the fact remians,supposedly,that the earth,with us and everything else on it,our solar system and the entire galaxy are all moving at many thousands,hundreds of thousands and millions of mph...

And so while driving down that highway at 70 mph,stick your hand or head out the window and its very obvious that your moving fast...

The earth is spinning really fast,while orbiting very fast through a solar system thats traveling extremely fast around a galaxy thats moving mind bendingly fast...

Yet when we're outside both day and night,it looks,feels and seems like theres very little movement, almost like nothings moving at all..

And all those white and grey clouds just hanging up there in the sky,the oceans and you and i are not all just effortlessly blown away into space,even though we're actually and ultimately moving at a speed of 2,237,000 mph through the universe?!?!

Ummm this might sound a little stupid

But does that mean If we were really big, like big giant space monsters the size of a galaxy we would be seeing everything zip past at terrible speeds we would not be able to comprehend?

Or would it be in slow motion?.

Would any be able to calculate that?

I'm screaming every day since I know how fast earth spins, I hate roller coasters!


But yes I thought about this as well, it's just strange how things are in space. Big, bigger and even more bigger, fast, faster en even more faster. Bright, brighter, dark, darker, heavy, heavier.

Controlled madness.

Originally posted by blocula

Originally posted by massiveffect
It might be because everything else is moving around the same speed also. Think of it as if your driving on the freeway at 70 mph and you pass another vehicle that is going 65 mph. If your looking at only the other vehicle and not the road or backgraound if will seem your only moving acouple Mph. Not sure if the same applies to Celestial body's but thats just my two cents.

I hear what your saying and i know exactly what you mean...

But the fact remians,supposedly,that the earth,with us and everything else on it,our solar system and the entire galaxy are all moving at many thousands,hundreds of thousands and millions of mph...

And so while driving down that highway at 70 mph,stick your hand or head out the window and its very obvious that your moving fast...

The earth is spinning really fast,while orbiting very fast through a solar system thats traveling extremely fast around a galaxy thats moving mind bendingly fast...

Yet when we're outside both day and night,it looks,feels and seems like theres very little movement, almost like nothings moving at all..

And all those white and grey clouds just hanging up there in the sky,the oceans and you and i are not all just effortlessly blown away into space,even though we're actually and ultimately moving at a speed of 2,237,000 mph through the universe?!?!

edit on 22-3-2012 by blocula because: (no reason given)

Blown away by what?

When you stick your head out of the car window at 70mph...yes you will readily notice how fast you are going because the air outside your car is not moving with you.

On the same note, when you are in your car with the windows rolled up, you don't notice the force of the air flowing around you because the air in your car is moving with you. This is the same for the solar system. What matter exists in interplanetary space inside our solar system is traveling with us for the most part.

We're also moving through a vacuum, which by definition means there really isn't any friction to blow away anything like the passage of the air outside your car would.

Something about this outer space speed is not making much sense...again...that 3-dimensional, holographic, super computer generated simulated illusion is rising to the surface of extreme possibility...again

Originally posted by Dashdragon

Originally posted by blocula

Originally posted by massiveffect
It might be because everything else is moving around the same speed also. Think of it as if your driving on the freeway at 70 mph and you pass another vehicle that is going 65 mph. If your looking at only the other vehicle and not the road or backgraound if will seem your only moving acouple Mph. Not sure if the same applies to Celestial body's but thats just my two cents.

I hear what your saying and i know exactly what you mean...

But the fact remians,supposedly,that the earth,with us and everything else on it,our solar system and the entire galaxy are all moving at many thousands,hundreds of thousands and millions of mph...

And so while driving down that highway at 70 mph,stick your hand or head out the window and its very obvious that your moving fast...

The earth is spinning really fast,while orbiting very fast through a solar system thats traveling extremely fast around a galaxy thats moving mind bendingly fast...

Yet when we're outside both day and night,it looks,feels and seems like theres very little movement, almost like nothings moving at all..

And all those white and grey clouds just hanging up there in the sky,the oceans and you and i are not all just effortlessly blown away into space,even though we're actually and ultimately moving at a speed of 2,237,000 mph through the universe?!?!

edit on 22-3-2012 by blocula because: (no reason given)

We're also moving through a vacuum, which by definition means there really isn't any friction to blow away anything like the passage of the air outside your car would.

Then how are spaceships able to propel themselves forward in a frictionless vacum,what are their rockets pushing against that allows them to move outwards once their in outer space?...Nothing?

reply to post by blocula


Simple physics, Watson, simple physics...

Any reaction has an equal and opposite reaction. The rocket is pushing against itself.

Im sure 'rocket scientists' have thought about this.
Maybe we could use the speed of everything else to our advantage when intersteler traveling.
Maybe we could just let the other stars come to us, kinda thing. Or propel our rockets in the opsite direction of galaxy travel and use the combined speed of the rocket with the speed of the approaching intersteler body.

Dunno, just a thought.

Originally posted by blocula

Something about this outer space speed is not making much sense...again...that 3-dimensional, holographic, super computer generated simulated illusion is rising to the surface of extreme possibility...again

edit on 22-3-2012 by blocula because: (no reason given)

Because that makes more sense?

reply to post by Talltexxxan


That wouldn't work (though about it myself!)

The rockets speed would be relative to whatever body you wish to measure against and I know it's difficult to imagine, but even if it is travelling in one direction at KPH, that is only against it's reference body. It will still be travelling in the direction it was before it took off as well.. Hard to picture, but give it a go..

Imagine if you let a balloon out of car window but had it on string, then you let more and more string out of the window..The balloon would travel further away from you at one relative speed, but still be travelling in your general direction at another relative speed as well...

Space Ships propel themselves in a direction via propulsion. If you release energy, it pushes against you. So basically the space ships push against their exhaust, in a sense. Your using energy in one direction to let it push you in another, you don't need said energy to "hit anything" to push you.

As for the idea of these speeds? Relativity. I'll reply as to "why this doesn't make sense" and "could we use it to travel to other stars faster" in one, easy to understand explanation.

Imagine you are on a train going 80 miles an hour ---> that way.
Step out of the train into the air.
Remove gravity and air friction - so you won't slow down or fall when you do this.
Your motion will continue forward WITH the train. The train does not look like it is moving to you.
Give yourself some land-scape like moving poles, trees, etc. Now your brain says "Ah! I'm moving --->"
Though you could also say, "Ah, the world is moving