Is the Earth moving really fast?

The Earth circles the sun. This circling is called an orbit. It takes a full year to make a complete orbit of the sun. So how fast do you think the Earth is moving in its orbit? Can you believe it’s moving at a speed of 30 kilometers per second? That’s amazingly fast.

The Earth also spins around itself, as it orbits the sun. This is called the Earth’s rotation. The Earth completes a full rotation in one day. At any given time, the side of the Earth lit by the sun is in daytime. The other side where the sun’s light does not reach is in nighttime. The reason each day has daytime and nighttime is because of the Earth’s rotation.

The Earth rotates around itself at an angle of 23.4 degrees as it orbits the sun. Because of this, the direction of the sun as seen from Earth continually changes during the Earth’s orbit. This is what gives the Earth the four seasons.