You may
contemplate that as you are reading this, your body in a stationary position.
But, everything inside the universe travels, from our planet (Earth) –which
revolves on its axis at a speed of approximately 1700 km/h— to the solar system
and even the Milky Way Galaxy.
All the
planets in the solar system and their personal moons also travel through space.
Actually, in order to retain a stable orbit, it is essential for Earth to move
around 30 km/s. The innermost planets in our system, Mercury and Venus travel
faster while planet Mars and the external planets of our solar system fly through
space at a sluggish pace.
But think
superior and bigger. Even yet the Sun is at the heart of our solar system, it
is also traveling at an unbelievable speed through space. If we consider even
bigger, we will understand that even our gigantic Milky Way galaxy is in
motion, and all continuing things that make up the universe such as stars, gas
clouds, planets, black holes and even the mighty dark matter travel within the
universe.
Just as
Earth revolve around the Sun and our Sun revolves the galactic center –which
from our vantage point is situated around 2500 light-years away— in an elliptic
trajectory. It finishes a revolution every 225 million years roughly. This is
known as a Galactic year.
It is
predicted that since the Sun and Earth came into being, 20 galactic years have
passed, which means that we ended 20 successful revolutions orbiting the
galactic center. However, if we relate detailed human history to our movement
through the universe, we would understand we hardly moved in our galactic path.
But what
about the Speed? In order to finish a successful revolution around the galactic
center, the Star (Sun) has to travel at a stunning speed of 792,000 km/h.
Including Earth and all other objects in our complete solar system follow the
sun at this obsessive speed.
In
comparison, light-travels at a mesmerizing speed of 1.09 BILLION km/h.
Though, not
only do moons, planets, and in this particular case, our sun travels through
space, the galaxy also moves through space, pushed by the gravitation of other
enormous objects in the universe.
As it turns
out, our Galaxy is now being thrown, by other huge galaxies and clusters in the
surrounding area — near a certain point in the universe.
But wait a
minute, related to WHAT is we actually calculating the movement through the
universe? Well, when arguing our speed around the Milky Way Galaxy, researchers
are capable to measure it relative to the HEART of the Milky Way Galaxy.
However, the
Milky Way Galaxy isn’t motionless or stationary, and it also moves through the
universe. So is there anything to which its motion can be compared?
For a long
period time, astronomers and scientists were not able to answer any questions
like this. We can compare our galaxy’s speed with other galaxies, but all the
other galaxies travel through the universe just as the Milky Way Galaxy does.
In order to
answer this mystery, astronomers and scientists point towards the CBR (Cosmic
Background Radiation) and the Big Bang.
As stated by
NASA, The Big Bang theory guesses that the early universe was an extremely hot
place and that as it grows; the gas within it gets cooler. Therefore the
universe should be packed with radiation that is exactly the remnant heat left
from the Big Bang, called the “Cosmic Microwave Background,” or CMB. The Cosmic
Microwave Background (CMB) radiation was produced 13.7 billion years ago.
Theoretically
speaking, the CBR suggests experts with a frame of reference for the entire
universe, compared to which we can determine and calculate our motion.
In order to
get knowledge of how fast we’re travelling through the universe, astronomers
need to take away the motion of planet Earth around the Sun and the Sun around
the center of the Milky Way from the movement measured compared to the Cosmic
Microwave Background (CBR).
This means
that the Milky Way Galaxy is travelling through space at an amazing speed of
2.1 million km/h, in the direction of the constellations of Virgo and Leo;
exactly where the so-called Great Attractor is situated.
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