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The Solar System is traveling at an average speed of 230 km/s (828,000 km/h) or 143 mi/s (514,000 mph) within its trajectory around the Galactic Center, [3] a speed at which an object could circumnavigate the Earth's equator in 2 minutes and 54 seconds; that speed corresponds to approximately 1/1300 of the speed of light.
The point towards which the Earth in its solar orbit is directed at any given instant is known as the "apex of the Earth's way". [4] [5] From a vantage point above the north pole of either the Sun or Earth, Earth would appear to revolve in a counterclockwise direction around the Sun. From the same vantage point, both the Earth and the Sun would ...
Again, this is a simplification, based on a hypothetical Earth that orbits at uniform speed around the Sun. The actual speed with which Earth orbits the Sun varies slightly during the year, so the speed with which the Sun seems to move along the ecliptic also varies. For example, the Sun is north of the celestial equator for about 185 days of ...
Earth's movement along its nearly circular orbit while it is rotating once around its axis requires that Earth rotate slightly more than once relative to the fixed stars before the mean Sun can pass overhead again, even though it rotates only once (360°) relative to the mean Sun. [n 5] Multiplying the value in rad/s by Earth's equatorial ...
Secondly, the position of the Earth in its orbit around the Sun at the solstices, equinoxes, or other time defined relative to the seasons, slowly changes. [3] For example, suppose that the Earth's orbital position is marked at the summer solstice, when the Earth's axial tilt is pointing directly toward the Sun. One full orbit later, when the ...
On a prograde planet like the Earth, the sidereal day is shorter than the solar day. At time 1, the Sun and a certain distant star are both overhead. At time 2, the planet has rotated 360° and the distant star is overhead again (1→2 = one sidereal day). But it is not until a little later, at time 3, that the Sun is overhead again (1→3 = one solar day). More simply, 1→2 is a complete ...
As viewed from Earth during the year, the Sun appears to slowly drift along an imaginary path coplanar with Earth's orbit, known as the ecliptic, on a spherical background of seemingly fixed stars. [5] Each synodic day, this gradual motion is a little less than 1° eastward (360° per 365.25 days), in a manner known as prograde motion.
from geostationary orbit to Earth: 119 ms: the length of Earth's equator: 134 ms: from Moon to Earth: 1.3 s: from Sun to Earth (1 AU) 8.3 min: one light-year: 1.0 year: one parsec: 3.26 years: from the nearest star to Sun (1.3 pc) 4.2 years: from the nearest galaxy to Earth: 70 000 years: across the Milky Way: 87 400 years: from the Andromeda ...