How fast are we actually travelling?

You are currently travelling at nearly 2 million miles per hour (3 million kph) — and you can't even feel it.

Whilst we picture the Sun as a huge static lightbulb in the sky, with the Earth quietly circling it, nothing could be further from reality. In fact, nothing in space is standing still.

First, you are spinning. The Earth turns once every 24 hours, and at the equator that spin throws you around at 1,037 mph (1,670 kph). You don't feel it because everything around you — the air, the oceans, you — is moving together.

Second, that whole spinning planet is racing around the Sun. Our orbit is a 584-million-mile lap we complete every year at 67,000 mph (107,000 kph). That speed is what stops us from falling into the Sun.

This is where most people stop, but the Sun itself is not static either. The Sun is a star racing through space. It is dragging the entire solar system — Earth, Mars, Jupiter and all — in a vast orbit around the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy, Sagittarius A*. We are circling the Milky Way at 514,000 mph (828,000 kph), taking 250 million years to complete one galactic year. The dinosaurs were on the other side of the galaxy.

Finally, the entire Milky Way is not standing still either. Our galaxy, along with our local group of galaxies, is being pulled across the Universe towards a mysterious gravitational centre called the Great Attractor in the Laniakea Supercluster. That drift is the fastest of all — 1,300,000 mph (2,200,000 kph).

Add them up and your maximum straight-line speed right now is around 1.88 million mph. The reason you can't feel any of it is the same reason you don't feel speed on a smooth flight — you only feel changes in speed, not speed itself.