can one actually see the earth rotating and revolving at its terrific speed from outer space ?

Answer 1

The speed isn't all that terrific. If you're in orbit of the Earth at anywhere below 25,000 miles your own orbital speed is faster than that of the Earth, so you notice that rather than Earth's rotation. In the orbit of the ISS, for example, the astronauts are bombing along at 17,500mph, completing a full rotation in 1.5 hours comared to the 24 it takes Earth to complete one full rotation. If you're far enough away that the whole EArth is visible below you and you are orbiting significantly slower than it rotates, say for example you were on the surface of the Moon, then it would still take around 12 hours for something that appeared on one side of the Earth as it rotated to reach the other side and disappear again.

If you want a good visual approximation of how fast Earth's rotation would appear from space, pick a night where Mars is reasonably close and watch it through a telescope. Mars completes one orbit in about 24 hrs 37 minutes, so its rotation seen from here would appear very similar to ours seen from there. You'll find that you can't watch it rotate noticeably before you get bored of looking, but if you look at it over a period of a few hours you'll notice the changes in visible surface detail as it rotates.

Answer 2

Observing the Earth from, say, Venus or Mars, its rotation would be similar to the rotation of Mars as seen from Earth. Mars' rotation period is only half an hour longer than Earth's, but the shift in its surface markings is clearly visible after 15 or 20 minutes, as seen through a good telescope at about 300x. Not what I'd call "terrific speed", but observable nonetheless.

Answer 3

If in orbit you would notice the Earth turning below but in general the Earth's rotation is too slow to be observed from the Moon for example. It's a fundamental law of physics that the farther an object is the slower it appears from a distance. That's why airliners seem to be barely moving when they are coming in for a landing from a distance even though they are going about 180 mph.

Answer 4

Everything's relative. When orbiting at about 17,000 miles per hour, the 1,000 mile per hour rotation (at the equator) of the Earth is pretty tame. Seen from the Moon, the Earth's rotation is unnoticeable-- after all, it takes a whole day for it to rotate once, and it's only about three times larger in the sky as the Moon appears on Earth.

Answer 5

yes. because you are outside the surface of the earth and you're considering different frame of reference..if you are here on the surface of the earth, you cannot observe its rotation because you are also moving together with the earth..