Here’s a thread to drop interesting question for forum members to get some different perspectives. I’ll start… Supposedly the earth is spinning roughly 1,000 mph at the equator. The earth orbits the sun at about 67,000 mph. Our solar system orbits the Milky Way at roughly 515,000 mph, but some say it could be 3x as fast. The Milky Way is moving through space at about 1.2 mph. source: So the question is: With all of this motion, how is the North Star in the same place unmoved every night throughout history? How have the same constellations appeared every night for thousands of years of recorded history by astronomers? Shouldn’t we have some new scenery by now? This doesn’t make sense to me.
that's presumptive and dismissive, and it doesn't answer the question That's an attempt to demean someone with an overly scholastic approach while actually providing nothing of substance. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
The short version is: everything is moving, but space is so incredibly huge that most of that motion barely changes what we see in the sky on human timescales. Here’s a friendly breakdown: Why the North Star stays “in place” Polaris (the North Star) looks fixed because it sits almost exactly above Earth’s rotation axis (the North Pole direction in space). As Earth spins, the sky appears to rotate around that axis. Stars far from that point rise and set. Polaris is right near that point, so it just makes a tiny circle and looks stationary. It’s not truly fixed — just very well aligned from our viewpoint. Also, fun fact: Polaris hasn’t always been the North Star and won’t always be. Earth’s axis slowly wobbles like a spinning top (called precession). One full wobble takes ~26,000 years. Ancient Egyptians, for example, had a different pole star. Why constellations look the same Constellations look stable because stars are extremely far away. Even though stars move fast: They are light-years away (trillions of miles). From that distance, their motion across our sky is tiny. Over a few thousand years, the shapes change only a little. If you could compare today’s sky with one from 50,000–100,000 years ago, you’d notice differences. But over a few thousand years? Mostly the same patterns. So it’s like watching mountains from far away while driving — you can move a lot and the mountains barely shift relative to each other. About all those speeds The speeds you listed are real but a bit misleading without context: Motion is relative — there’s no universal “still.” We (and the stars we see) are often moving together through the galaxy. Think of being on a smooth airplane: you’re moving 500+ mph but can still toss a ball straight up. Also, the Milky Way’s speed through space is way more than 1.2 mph — it’s hundreds of thousands of mph relative to other galaxies. But again, everything is so far apart that the visual effect is tiny. A helpful analogy: Imagine: You’re in a car driving fast. Bugs on your windshield (nearby objects) zip around. Distant mountains barely seem to move. Stars are like the mountains — incredibly distant. The big takeaway We don’t see “new scenery” because: Stars are unimaginably far away. Their relative positions change very slowly. Earth’s axis points nearly at Polaris. Cosmic motions happen on timescales of tens of thousands to millions of years. If humans live long enough, future astronomers will see totally different constellations
A little more on the subject: Most of the stars you see with the naked eye are part of the Milky Way galaxy, just like the Sun. That means: 1. We orbit the center of the galaxy together. 2. Many nearby stars move in roughly similar directions and speeds. 3. So our relative motion compared to them is smaller than the raw orbital speed numbers suggest. It’s a bit like: Cars on the same highway going 100 km/h don’t seem to move much relative to each other, even though they’re all moving fast relative to the ground. In short - moving together as part of the same galaxy reduces how much change we notice. But that’s only part of the story. Even within the Milky Way: 1. Stars have their own individual motions. 2. They orbit at slightly different speeds and directions. 3. Over long enough times, this does reshape constellations. Astronomers apparenrly call this proper motion. We can measure it, and some stars visibly shift position over decades with precise instruments. Example: Barnard’s Star moves noticeably in photos taken decades apart. In ~10,000–50,000 years, some constellations will look distorted. In a few hundred thousand years, many will be unrecognizable. So the sky isn’t frozen — it’s just evolving very slowly. Why the sky still looks stable to us Three big reasons: 1. Shared galactic motion (your point) - We’re riding along with many stars in the same general flow. 2. Enormous distances - Even fast motion looks tiny across light-year distances. 3. Short human timescales - Thousands of years is a blink in cosmic terms.
I appreciate the quality input gentlemen. Much better than that one guy. You round earthers are alright in my book. --- Kyrie (Probably)
