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It is a near circular orbit. I believe the eccentricity (ratio of the widest diameter of orbit to smallest diameter) is currently about 0.017. Over eons, the eccentricity of the Earth's orbit varies from nearly 0.0034 to almost 0.058 as a result of changing gravitational attractions between Earth and the other planets.

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As the Earth races around the Sun at 30 km/sec (18 miles/sec). At sunrise the Earth is pushing you along the orbit and at sunset the Earth is trying to fall out from under you (at 66,000 mph!) while you are spinning around on the equator at 1040 mph (down to 0 mph at the poles).

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While the galaxy is moving at 666,000 mph through the universe, the Sun travels in an orbit around center of galaxy (at 560,000 mph) just as we orbit the sun (at 66,600 mph) and over a period of 1000's of years it also orbits around a local group of suns which cause u,s to travel up into the plane of the galaxy and then back down again.

At a certain time of year when our equator is in the same plane as our orbit and the sun is on the eastern horizon (i.e., sunrise) and if you are standing on the equator - you are traveling in a direction that is straight overhead at 66 thousand miles per hour! Time for your Superman-in-flight pose.

At any time of year at sunrise -- the direction of travel is somewhere within 23 degrees of straight overhead as well. (If you are at ## latitude then just subtract that from zenith (spot directly overhead) to be looking in the direction of earth motion).

Adding all this up depending on our position in the orbit around the galaxy, the time of year, and time of day you are traveling anywhere between 1,293,640 mph! to 38,360 mph in the direction of the Andromeda Galaxy (our nearest big neighbor). It takes ~125 million years to slow down or speed up between the velocities.

Each day on earth you go from 1000 mph in one direction to traveling 1000 mph in the opposite direction 12 hours later. By going into space you lose this daily rhythm. In the shuttle you change directions every 2 hours - at 18,000 mph.

And No you don't slow down and speed up (I.E, You Don't Feel Acceleration), in reality its just your vector (direction that changes).
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15y ago

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