HOW FAST IS THE EARTH MOVING THROUGH SPACE?

The earth is speeding like a top and like a merry-go-round horse on a carousel that is itself riding on a larger carousel, and the whole amusement park is moving through space. The earth rotates on its axis at about 460 metres per second at the equator. The speed of a trip around the sun is about 30km per second. Meanwhile, the solar system is in a more-or-less circular orbit around the centre of the galaxy at an average velocity of about 220 kilometres a second, according to Facts on File Dictionary of Astronomy, and the galaxy is moving at about 19.4 kilometres a second, toward a point in the constellation Hercules called the solar apex. Some authorities believe that there is also a general drift by the Milky Way and some neighbouring upper clusters towards the southern cross at a speed of more than a million miles an hour.