03/09/2026
The Milky Way may appear still when we look up at the night sky, but it is actually moving through space at an incredible speed.
Scientists estimate that our galaxy travels at about 1.3 million miles per hour relative to the cosmic background.
This motion is influenced by the gravitational pull of nearby galaxies and massive cosmic structures in our region of the universe.
Inside the Milky Way, billions of stars—including our Sun—orbit around the galaxy’s center. At the same time, the entire galaxy is moving through space as part of a larger cluster of galaxies.
Even though these speeds are enormous, we do not feel the movement because everything in our Solar System is traveling together with the galaxy.