How Earth REALLY Moves Through the Galaxy

Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord!

Perhaps you’ve seen videos of how the planets of the solar system move through the universe in this cool helix. Not only are these misleading, but the Earth’s real motion - YOUR motion through the universe, is way more complicated and way more interesting.

Check out the Space Time Merch Store

Sign up for the mailing list to get episode notifications and hear special announcements!

Hosted by Matt O'Dowd
Written by Matt Caplan & Matt O'Dowd
Post Production by Leonardo Scholzer, Yago Ballarini, Pedro Osinski, Caique Oliveira, Adriano Leal & Stephanie Faria
Directed by Andrew Kornhaber
Associate Producer: Bahar Gholipour
Executive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber
Executive in Charge for PBS: Maribel Lopez
Director of Programming for PBS: Gabrielle Ewing
Assistant Director of Programming for PBS: John Campbell

The Matt Character (at 2:19) created by Mike Crumbs

Spacetime is produced by Kornhaber Brown for PBS Digital Studios.
This program is produced by Kornhaber Brown, which is solely responsible for its content.
© 2023 PBS. All rights reserved.

Space Time was made possible in part by

Big Bang Sponsors
Bryce Fort
Peter Barrett
David Neumann
Leo Koguan
Sean Maddox
Alexander Tamas
Morgan Hough
Juan Benet
Vinnie Falco
Fabrice Eap
Mark Rosenthal

Quasar Sponsors
Glenn Sugden
Alex Kern
Ethan Cohen
Stephen Wilcox
Christina Oegren
Mark Heising

Hypernova Sponsors
Silvia Gionta
David Giltinan
Ivari Tölp
Kenneth See
Gregory Forfa
Kirk Honour
Joe Moreira
Bradley Voorhees
Marc Armstrong
Scott Gorlick
Paul Stehr-Green
Scott Gray
Антон Кочков
John R. Slavik
David S. Cerutti
Donal Botkin
John Pollock
Edmund Fokschaner
chuck zegar
Jordan Young
Daniel Muzquiz

Gamma Ray Burst Supporters
Thomas Nielson
Joe Pavlovic
Ryan McGaughy
Mark West
Chuck Lukaszewski
Edward Hodapp
Kevin Tillery
Cole Combs
Marc Forand
Andrea Galvagni
Jerry Thomas
Nikhil Sharma
Ryan Moser
Jonathan Cordovano
John Anderson
Scott Hannum
Paul Widden
Bradley Ulis
Craig Falls
Kane Holbrook
Ross Story
Teng Guo
Mason Dillon
Matt Langford
Harsh Khandhadia
Thomas Tarler
Susan Albee
Frank Walker
Matt Quinn
Michael Lev
Terje Vold
James Trimmier
Anatoliy Nagornyy
Andre Stechert
Paul Wood
Kent Durham
Jim Bartosh
Ramon Nogueira
Paul Suchy
Ellis Hall
John H. Austin, Jr.
Diana S Polijar
Faraz Khan
Almog Cohen
Alex Edwards
Ádám Kettinger
Endre Pech
Daniel Jennings
Cameron Sampson
Geoffrey Clarion
Russ Creech
Jeremy Reed
David Johnston
Michael Barton
Andrew Mann
Isaac Suttell
Oliver Flanagan
Bleys Goodson
Robert Walter
Mirik Gogri
Mark Delagasse
Mark Daniel Cohen
Nickolas Andrew Freeman
Shane Calimlim
Tybie Fitzhugh
Robert Ilardi
Eric Kiebler
Craig Stonaha
Graydon Goss
Frederic Simon
Dmitri McGuiness
John Robinson
Jim Hudson
Alex Gan
David Barnholdt
David Neal
John Funai
Bradley Jenkins
Daniel Stříbrný
Cody Brumfield
Thomas Dougherty
King Zeckendorff
Dan Warren
Patrick Sutton
John Griffith
Dean Faulk
Sam Long

[AlexB-nwjt]

I can't believe how well done these videos are, and they are free. I'm so grateful.

[anonymbigfox]

I can't help but notice that at the galactic scale, the journey of the sun is so short-lived.

If the galactic year is 230 million and the sun is roughly 5 billion year old, that means the sun is only at its 22nd orbit around the center of the galaxy.

Given that the sun has 5 billion more years before turning into a white a dwarf, its whole journey as shining star would last 44 galactic years... assuming the sun doesn't run into another star in the next 5 billion years.

Also, great episode and thank you for your hard work.

[treck]

Surely one of the pinnacles of wisdom and science is the ability to interpret and break-down complex information into everyday terms for those without years of study to appreciate and understand with a curiosity to know more. Great video.

[JonCofer]

I love the little “this is what I think” in the outro. That kind of thing just feels so refreshing to my brain after trying to understand all the science of space-time.

[Scenery-]

Currently working through all the previous videos, Matt and the PBS team have made an invaluable resource

[sunnyjim]

As an old git who has had a life-long layman's interest in such subjects, it's still very enjoyable to learn more about such, even at a fundamental level that helps stitch together other things I've learned so that I get an even greater understanding/appreciation of the bigger picture.... and PBS serves up those juicy morsels with impressive regularity.

[kindred]

What a fantastic teacher and researcher. I highly respect someone who corrects himself and answers key questions at the end. Thank you for this great content!

[ger]

Monty Python explained all of this back in 1983:

"We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point
We go 'round every two hundred million years
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe"

[laceygibson]

Words cannot describe the excitement of seeing a new space time video being posted... its like the scholastic book fair for adults

[heretustay]

that last little bit, on what you actually think other life could be made out of and the "out there" being multiple universes away was kind of mind blowing. thank you for sharing your mind with us all, it is so wonderful to just think about things

[willo]

This is my favorite channel on Youtube. Nowhere else can I find such complex information presented in such an elegant and understandable manner.

[reversefulfillment]

Depending on your frame of reference, we have never been in the same place for our entire lives. Even sitting here, relatively still, my body is moving at thousands of times the speed of sound.

[thelostone]

At 8:08, I suddenly had flashbacks to being a kid in the 80s and using Spirographs as a form of entertainment. (Ask your grandparents kids) And the 80s synth pop was helping!

[lDarkhorsel]

This is an absolutely beautiful video. Thank you so much for explaining this so elegantly and yet, with just the appropriate amount of detail. The visualizations of the concepts are perfect, the graphics are well composed and clear.

The video somehow not only presents amazing mathematical and scientific information about our path through the universe, but also simultaneously captures the incalculable marvel and delicate balance of cosmological motion.

One of my favorites I've ever seen on this channel. Outstanding.

[anywallsocket]

Our path through the universe is WILD yet what’s more wild is that we can understand this much about it! 😮

[johnfitzgerald]

I don't move at all. Everything else does.

[magellanicspaceclouds]

This was one of my favorite episodes so far. I love galactic astrophysics.

[MrFugean]

I was literally trying to envision the path through the universe the other day and I just couldn't get past what it might look like based on just our galaxy, let alone everything else around us

[Jesst]

I can learn from this man because he does not have a shrill voice with eccentric personality while also being condescending. He does a great job. An excellent teacher. I greatly appreciate the absence of infantilization of the material and the viewers.

[lunawoodsacred]

I have been enquiring how the Sun moves through the galaxy for a few years & couldn’t find much information about this. Delighted to have this so brilliantly explained. Your Knowledge is astounding and so inspiring. Thank-you for blowing my mind whilst providing such understandable teachings. ✨