Speed walking through space

Milky-way-mtns

I like to take a brisk walk every day. Depending on how I measure my speed, I'm averaging 1,003.5 miles per hour (mph), or 66,003.5 mph, or 483,003.5 mph, or 1,300,003.5 mph. Actually, my personal contribution towards those speeds is just 3.5 mph. The Earth, Sun, and Milky Way galaxy provide most of the propulsion:

  • Even when I'm perfectly still, I'm moving at 1,000 mph as the Earth turns.
  • The Earth is orbiting the Sun at 66,000 mph.
  • The Sun, along with its captive solar system, including yours truly, are orbiting the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy at 483,000 mph. Even at that speed, it takes the Sun about 225 million years to make the trip around our galaxy (20 such "galactic years" have elapsed since the Sun and Earth formed).
  • The Milky Way galaxy is moving through space at 1.3 million mph.

It seems like the Earth, Sun, and Milky Way are going fast, but they're way under the “speed limit” of the universe, which is 670 million mph (the speed of light). According to Albert Einstein, nobody can break that speed limit.