motion

Planet motion is more complex than normally presented using Kepler's three laws of planetary motion.

normally their motion is shown as ellipses around the sun with the exception of the dwarf planets (eg pluto, Senda,MakeMake etc) in the ecliptic plane (imaginary flat disc around the sun)

The elliptical paths show are simplified, each planet mass effects the orbits of the others this is how we discovered the planets Uranus and Neptune beyond Saturn.

The Sun is also moving around the Milky Way Galaxy, the ecliptic plane currently has a 60deg tilt away for the galactic core around 30,000 light years away.

How Earth Moves

The movement of the sun of 828,000 km/hour(over half a million miles an hour) around the Milky Way. Spacecraft leaving our planet are also moving at this speed around our galaxy.

Over a time the planets orbits can also be perturbed by other nearby stars.

Milky Way

The 'Milky Way' is the name given to the Galaxy we and our Sun(Sol) and Solar System exist in.

Our Sun as do as we; orbits the center of the Milky Way at 828,000kmh (514,000mph).

For a body to escape away from the Milky Way it would have to achieved galactic escape velocity, a staggering 1,955,000kmh (1,215,000mph) at our radius.

Other points of interest

The Milky Way is part of a 'Local group' of around 54 galaxies, in which Andromeda is moving towards us around 130 km/s and will collide in around 5 billion years time.

Our local group of galaxies are part of what is known as the Laniakea supercluster, The Laniakea supercluster includes the "Great Attractor" at its center and also includes our 'Local Supercluster' the Virgo Supercluster that has our Local Group in, also affects the movement of our local group and in turn our Milky Way galaxy and our Sun Sol's motion.

Our whole local group of galaxies are all moving towards an area in space called the "Great Attractor" at a speed maybe as high as 1,000 km/s. Note millions of other galaxies are also heading towards the Great Attractor.

Great Attractor: A structure in a region of space roughly 250 million light-years (one light year is about six trillion miles) away from us in the direction of the Hydra Centaurus supercluster. This Great Attractor, having a mass 100 quadrillion times greater than our sun and span of 400 million light-years