If our planet is rotating and shooting through space, why do we see stars as dots of light instead of blurred lines across the sky?

Question

I’m sitting here trying to sleep and this is keeping me awake.

In: Physics

Answer 1

Our actual speed through space is extremely fast, the *apparent* speed relative to objects that are trillions of miles away is very small.

It is similar to how when driving down the freeway a mountain off in the distance hardly appears to be moving relative to you, but the dashed lines on on the road are shooting by very fast.

The difference being that the stars are many trillions of times further away than that mountain top.