That means for every moment you're standing still, the ground beneath you is spinning through space faster than you can spit; spinning at a speed of about 1,700 km/h, and swinging around the centre of our solar system at a speed of 4,500 km/h.
The solar system spins around a galactic core, a superset of the Earth's motions, and our dwarf sun is moving through the galaxy towards the constellation Virgo (the jokes you could make, eh), taking the Earth and 8 other lumps of rock along with it, the entire solar convoy spinning around the centre of the milky way at about 1900 kilometres per second, and hauling ass through to Virgo at about 194 kilometres every second.
So stand still for a moment. Feel the tranquil stillness of your breath. Anchor yourself in time, in this moment. If it took a second, you will have moved 12,000 kilometres - a quarter of the way around the Earth - as a passenger on board a machine with galactic mechanics.
(If you're interested, this is what it looks like - not accounting for galactic spin:)
Our solar system occupies a negligible amount of space and matter in the universe.
Which isn't really related to anything, except, the next time you stand to pray and you say the words 'God is Great', for the moment it took you to say those words, imagine what He has made happen through the heavens, and what he will continue to make happen until the end of time, and understand that our comprehension of the word great is miserable.
Which may be the point.
5 comments:
I feel really,really small after reading this.
A-mazing.
So True
I knew I was fast, but this fast.. I had no idea. It's unimaginable, really. It goes to show how insignificant we are with our childish politics and feelings of grandeur.
what's more amazing, I suspect, is our ability to comprehend this, and then instantly put up the walls to be able to survive it.
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