[ELI5) If the Solar System is moving so fast, how can astronauts come back to Earth?
In: 0
For the same reason you can go in an airplane to the bathroom and then come back to your seat. You are moving with the airplane. Just like everything is moving with the solar system.
Everything is orbiting the Sun with approximately the same momentum, so the tiny change in momentum by rockets doesn’t really stop you returning.
Because they’re still moving with it.
No astronaut has ever left Earth’s orbit. The furthest they’ve gone is to the Moon, which is still orbiting Earth. Therefore they were still being constantly pulled towards Earth and it doesn’t matter where Earth is moving.
Even if they left Earth, they’d still be orbiting the Sun, and therefore would move with the rest of the Solar System, for the same reason planets aren’t left behind by the Sun.
Latest Answers