How fast is the Solarsystem/Milky Way moving?

Im trying to figure out how fast things are moving thru empty space. I
understand the earth is moving about 67,000 mph around the Sun. How fast is
the Solar System moving around the Milky Way? Or how long does it take for one
orbit around the Milky Way? and how far out from the center is the Solar
System? (about 35,000 light years?).
And finally, how fast is the Milky Way galaxy moving thru empty space? Does
anybody really know that? Does that make any sense?
tia for any answers or even a link to any answers. KBill

(actually, i wonder if the entire known physical universe is also sliding
thru empty space and how that affects the way we perceive light, but i think im
way off about that idea)

KlingvilleBill wrote:
Im trying to figure out how fast things are moving thru empty space. I
understand the earth is moving about 67,000 mph around the Sun. How fast is
the Solar System moving around the Milky Way? Or how long does it take for one
orbit around the Milky Way? and how far out from the center is the Solar
System? (about 35,000 light years?).
And finally, how fast is the Milky Way galaxy moving thru empty space? Does
anybody really know that? Does that make any sense?
tia for any answers or even a link to any answers. KBill

(actually, i wonder if the entire known physical universe is also sliding
thru empty space and how that affects the way we perceive light, but i think im
way off about that idea)

The Sun's orbit about the galactic center goes at about 250 km/second,
and takes 225 million years or so to complete. [I find it amazing that
radio astronomers can confirm these numbers by measuring the apparent
motion of the source at the galactic center as we orbit.] Motion
"through empty space" is not measurable (and hence, according to
relativity, not a sensible thing to seek). The largest scale we can
measure motion on is with respect to the spherical shell of the early
Universe that produces the microwave background we see now, which
gives a motion of 370 km/s (actually that's for the solar system;
have to check to see how much of that is galactic rotation).

Bill Keel

Go to the Physics Forums thread found he

http://www.physicsforums.com/showthr...&threadid=9666
and it covers most of your subject. "Labguy" posted this
:
http://www.chron.com/content/interac...ds/990602.html
about the latest info on the solar system's rate of revolution. If you
like this kind of thing, go to:

http://www.physicsforums.com/forumdi...p?s=&forumid=2
and join PF for free. It is fun, informative and much more advanced
(usually) than most answers you can get on saa.

S. Sherrod

"KlingvilleBill" wrote in message
...
Im trying to figure out how fast things are moving thru empty space. I
understand the earth is moving about 67,000 mph around the Sun. How
fast is
the Solar System moving around the Milky Way? Or how long does it take
for one
orbit around the Milky Way? and how far out from the center is the
Solar
System? (about 35,000 light years?).
And finally, how fast is the Milky Way galaxy moving thru empty
space? Does
anybody really know that? Does that make any sense?
tia for any answers or even a link to any answers. KBill

(actually, i wonder if the entire known physical universe is also
sliding
thru empty space and how that affects the way we perceive light, but i
think im
way off about that idea)

From: "William C. Keel"

The Sun's orbit about the galactic center goes at about 250 km/second,
and takes 225 million years or so to complete.

lol. Thats fast! About a half a million miles per hour. It seems strange that
225 million years for one loop would only allow for 60 total orbits even at the
oldest estimates of the universes age (15 billion). I guess there are a lot of
factors i'm not considering. Thanks for the info. KBill

"Stephen Sherrod" wrote in message
m...
Go to the Physics Forums thread found he

Well, yes but I found it more fun to just learn the "Galaxy Song" from the
Monty Python movie "The Meaning of Life"

"Just remember that you're standing on a planet......"

Clear Skies,
Craig in Tampa

KlingvilleBill wrote:
From: "William C. Keel"


The Sun's orbit about the galactic center goes at about 250 km/second,
and takes 225 million years or so to complete.


lol. Thats fast! About a half a million miles per hour. It seems strange that
225 million years for one loop would only allow for 60 total orbits even at the
oldest estimates of the universes age (15 billion). I guess there are a lot of
factors i'm not considering. Thanks for the info. KBill

And many fewer (about 20) in the 4.6 billion years of the Sun's life.

--
John Oliver
Associate Professor
Associate Chair/Undergraduate Coordinator
Department of Astronomy
University of Florida
Project AST@RHO http://astrho.astro.ufl.edu
see the night sky at http://concam.net/rh/

KlingvilleBill wrote:

(actually, i wonder if the entire known physical universe is also sliding
thru empty space and how that affects the way we perceive light, but i think im
way off about that idea)

"William C. Keel" wrote in message ...
Motion
"through empty space" is not measurable (and hence, according to
relativity, not a sensible thing to seek).

This is the way i think of it: The universe cannot be sliding through
empty space, because empty space is part of the universe itself.

As for *our* motion with respect to everything else, it will cause a
red-shift or blue-shift in the light that reaches us, and will even
cause a shift in the apparent direction of the light. (This
"aberration of light" is measurable, and it means that what you see in
the sky isn't quite where it seems. It's the same effect that causes
falling rain to appear to change direction when you move through it.)
However, if we measure the speed of that light, it will always turn
out to be the same, regardless of where or how fast we're going, and
regardless of where the light is coming from.


Clear skies!

--
------------------- Richard Callwood III --------------------
~ U.S. Virgin Islands ~ USDA zone 11 ~ 18.3N, 64.9W ~
~ eastern Massachusetts ~ USDA zone 6 (1992-95) ~
--------------- http://cac.uvi.edu/staff/rc3/ ---------------

Craig MacDougal wrote:
"Stephen Sherrod" wrote in message
m...
Go to the Physics Forums thread found he

Well, yes but I found it more fun to just learn the "Galaxy Song" from the
Monty Python movie "The Meaning of Life"

"Just remember that you're standing on a planet......"

I once sang that during review at the end of a course. I recently bought
the DVD to see whether it would be fun to show in class, and, err,
well, the goings-on as Eric Idle sings this just won't work for
my purposes. Back to audio...

Bill Keel

"William C. Keel" wrote in message
...

I once sang that during review at the end of a course. I recently bought
the DVD to see whether it would be fun to show in class, and, err,
well, the goings-on as Eric Idle sings this just won't work for
my purposes.

.....unless you are teaching the class that John Clease does at the boy's
school. :-)

Craig in Tampa