To make one complete rotation, the Earth takes 24 hours and at a point near the equator, the Earth must move at close to 1000 miles per hour 1600 km/hr. The speed depends on your position on Earth.

Then the Sun

We are approximately 150 million km from the Sun. It takes us one year, 365 days, to go around once. The full path of the Earth's orbit is close to 600 million miles, 970 million km. To complete this circle we travel at 66 000 miles an hour or 107 million km per hour. The Earth and Moon orbit around the Sun once every 365.24 days, at an average distance of 1 AU (150 million km) and an average speed of 29.8 km/s or (107,000 km/h).

The Galaxy

The Galaxy is so immense even the nearest star is over 40 thousand billion km away. Relative to the local standard of rest, our Sun and the Earth are moving toward the galactic center at 22,000 mph, 36,000 km/h and slightly upward at 11,000 mph (18,000 km/h. It is roughly moving in the direction of the bright star Vega in the constellation of Lyra.

The Spinning Galaxy

The entire Galaxy is in spinning motion like an enormous pinwheel. We are moving roughly in the direction that is defined by the constellations of Leo and Virgo. With this in mind, many astronomers believe the galaxy is moving through space at approximately 600km per second relative to the observed locations of other nearby galaxies. If indeed the Milky Way is moving at 600 km per second, we are traveling 51.84 million km per day, or more than 18.9 billion km per year. For comparison, this would mean that each year, we are traveling about 4.5 times the distance that Pluto lies from the Earth at its closest. The Milky Way is thought to be moving in the direction of the constellation Hydra. Our galaxy may also collide with the Andromeda galaxy in roughly 4 billion years.

It takes our Sun approximately 225 million years to make the trip around our Galaxy, a galactic year. Since the Sun and the Earth formed, about 20 galactic years have passed; we have been around the Galaxy 20 times. How fast do we have to move to make it around the Milky Way in one galactic year? It's a huge circle, and the speed with which the Sun has to move is an astounding 230 to 240 km per sec in a nearly circular orbit. The Earth, anchored to the Sun by gravity, follows along at the same fantastic speed. Another reference frame is provided by the CMB. The Milky Way is moving at around 390 km and 552 km/s with respect to the photons of the cosmic microwave background. A very small part of the radiation that was generated just after the Big Bang can be detected today in all directions,

Though some speeds are not exact figures, some are. The latest figures show that compared to the average motion, the Sun appears to move at 16,000 mph, 25,200 km/h. It's moving toward the galactic center at 22,000 mph or 36,000 km/h and slightly upward at 11,000 mph or 18,000 km/h.

Leon Steyn - if you love a Challenge go see the Ozymandeus Challenge at: http://ozymandeus.com/landing.htm