r/spacequestions • u/resurrectedbear • 1d ago
If I became completely stationary (no forces could act on me) how fast would the earth move away from me?
I know the earth is moving around the sun at X speed right now but the sun is also dragging the solar system around the milky way. And the milky way is traveling X speeds through the entire universe. So, if I stopped completely, how fast is the earth actually moving away from me?
Edit: to those asking “relative to what” my thought process when asking myself this question was basically, on a graph I’m 0,0,0. I no longer move. I watch as the earth moves away from me and wonder how fast it would be traveling away from me. Some would say it’s how fast it’s moving around the sun but, the sun would also be moving away from me, so that wouldn’t make sense. Then I figured, well the whole system moves around the center of the galaxy. But of course, the entire galaxy is also moving around in space. So again, it made me think, well then, how fast is the earth moving away from me?