How fast are we travelling through the universe?

Question

I read resently that our position in the universe was not a static one and that we are excelirating away from other galaxys etc. My question is how fast are we going and does everything else in the universe travel at the same speed.

Answer 1

This is a good question, and the respondent who asked "with respect to what" is right on the money. Speed is always relative, but the best reference to measure from is the cosmological background radiation, which is fairly uniform in every direction. I don't remember the exact figure (our speed) or the direction but I know this information is available. Try Sky and Telescope magazine's search function, since I am sure that is where I read about it, or maybe Scientific American magazine. Basically the majority of the motion that can be ascertained by this method is from us being sucked toward that larger Galaxy known as Andromeda, after subtracting out Earth's orbital motion around the Sun and the Sun's orbital motion around the Galaxy. Other motions that have been found are: 1)We and Andromeda and the Whirlpool Galaxy and all the rest of our local group are being sucked toward the Virgo cluster of galaxies, and 2) we and the Virgo cluster are all being sucked toward a much larger cluster called the Perseus cluster, and 3) we and the Virgo cluster and the Perseus cluster are all being sucked toward something that has been dubbed "The Great Attractor" which is a giant supercluster of galaxies that is way off in the distance from us.
These various motions "pollute" any attempt to determine the Hubble constant, which is why it has taken us so long to come up with a reasonably accurate measure of this very important number.
However, the most interesting thing is that according to the current cosmology, ALL galaxies are basically "at rest", i.e. not moving, even those that seem to be speeding away from us at light like speeds. If you were living there you would see your own galaxy as "at rest" and all the other ones speeding away, even with respect to the cosmic background. The cosmic redshift is NOT a velocity measurement, as was once thought. It is instead a measure of the stretching of space itself. This is really mind blowing to me, and I am not sure I totally believe it, but that is the current wisdom. I hope this helps.

Answer 2

If you believe the big bang theory then we are travelling away from a fixed point at the speed of an explosion plus the speed of rotation of the earth and the speed of rotation around the sun. However any measurement is impossible to measure as we have no item fixed in space beyond our galaxy to measure our speed with.
However we are drifting apart which backs the big bang theory that we all came from one mass.
But the universe is infinate, that is goes on for ever and ever without end so logically there must be other big bangs going on and maybe heading towards us with equal speed.

Answer 3

Our speed through the universe depends on what you use as a reference point. For instance, our Milky Way galaxy belongs to a group of other galaxies which is moving towards an immense super cluster of galaxies (..called 'The Great Attractor'..) at a speed of 600 kilometers per second (..1,342,161 mph..) If you use the cosmic microwave background radiation as a reference then our solar system is moving at 1,328,000 kilometers per hour towards the Cup constellation.

Here's a run down on other speeds --
Earth moves around the sun at 67,108 mph;
Sun orbits around the Milky Way at 559,234 mph

Answer 4

We are traveling away from the site of the big bang at some speed, however due to the fact that the universe is expanding at the same time there is no true reference as its like trying to measure with a rubber rule.
Basically we are in the same situation we always were, speed is relative to the object or point you are measuring it from, basically its subjective.

Answer 5

I've always liked this one....

.... then why do I feel like I'm sittin' still???


from James A. Michener's "SPACE.. a novel"......


"I am motionless, he said to himself at last, and kept this posture for ten minutes, thinking of nothing. Then his brain insisted, recalling data he had memorized at Cal Tech......

'But at this moment, I'm sitting on a piece of Earth at 34degrees30 minutes North, which means "I'm spinning west to east at a rate of about 860 miles an hour. At the Equator, because of the larger bulge, 1,040 mph...... At the same time, my Earth is moving thru it's orbit around the Sun at 66,661 mph.... and my Sun is carrying itself and it's planets toward the star Vega at something ike 31,000 mph

Our Sun and Vega move around the Galaxy at the blinding speed of 700,000 mph and the Galaxy itself rotates at 559,350 mph......

and that's not all... OUr Galazy moves in relation all other galaxies as they rush thru the univer at a speed of better than 1,000,000 miles an hour....

so when I sit here absolutely still, I"m moving in six wildly different directions at an accumulated speed of maybe two and a half million mph... so I can never be motionless.... I'm traveling always at speeds which are incomprehensible ... and it's all happening in real time....

and, perhaps the Universe itself is hurtling toward some undefined destination at a speed which could hardly be stated..."

so, why do I feel like I'm sitting still?... wow!....

Answer 6

Like other people have said, it's not possible to give an actually speed. You would have to measure it relative to another object.

But, while everything in the universe is moving, it's not at the same rate. Scientists noticed that the further away an object is (in this instance, us) the faster is is travelling (relative to us).

Complicated stuff.

Answer 7

a couple of billion mph, i asked this question and never got a reasonable answer, the sun is 90 million miles away. it takes 1 year to travel round it, but don't forget we are also travelling around the galaxy, and the galaxy is travelling around the milky way, and the milky way is travelling around the universe,

so dont know.

Answer 8

Most of the above answers are pretty good but with one common fault. There is no site of the big bang. It was the creation of space not an event in space so it is meaningless to try and say where it happened,

Answer 9

This qustion cannot be answered unless you specify a reference point, i.e., speed with respect to what?

Answer 10

90,000 mph give or take a bit each way