Run Faster Than Venus Rotates!
Reading through the September 2006 issue of Astronomy magazine recently, I came across a two-page spread discussing the speeds of objects in space. Here’s a little list I’ve put together for your consideration:
- Person (brisk walk) : 4 mph
- Automobile (interstate speed) : 65 mph
- Commercial Jet (cruising speed) : 600 mph
- Venus Rotational Speed : 4.1 mph
- Mercury Rotational Speed : 6.8 mph
- Pluto Rotational Speed : 30.4 mph
- Earth Rotational Speed : 1,040 mph
- Sun Rotational Speed : 2,231 mph
- Neptune Rotational Speed : 6,001 mph
- Saturn Rotational Speed : 22,994 mph
Some things that strike me as amazing here : Venus’ rotational speed is so slow that you could run around the circumference of Venus before it has a chance to make one full rotation; Saturn is rotating on its axis at a very, very fast pace! I wonder what it would be like to be on the surface of Saturn as it whips around so quickly…is that what accounts for the nasty storms on the surface?
In the big scheme of things these don’t amount to much, but I thought them amazing just the same. We, or at least me, tend to take think in terms of the Earth so often. But, the fact is, there is quite a bit of disparity out in space!