What is the speed of the planets in the Solar System? See with this animation

every planet solar system moves at a different speed in space. But sometimes the numbers are not enough for us to understand these differences, and then two animations on YouTube come in and show the orbital velocities of our neighbors.

Videos by scientist and science popularizer James O’Donoghue show celestial spheres moving in a straight line. In the first, it is possible to compare relative speeds. The second shows the different transformation times of the planets.

The first video shows the relative orbital velocity of each of the planets. it is possible to see Mercury, closer to the sun, is the fastest. It travels at 47.4 km/h – this means that it exceeds 170 thousand kilometers in an hour.

The difference in the speeds of the planets is responsible for the gravity exerted by the sun. Our system is constantly trying to pull all surrounding objects towards the interior of this massive central star.

The further it moves away from our central star, the slower the planet gets. Neptune, which is 30 astronomical units (AU) from the sun, moves at a speed of 5.4 km/s. However, those who think that this is not enough are wrong. This velocity is six times that of a bullet fired from a pistol.

The second animation shows the relative time for each planet to complete its orbit around the sun. This is because the length of the journey varies greatly: the further away from our star, the greater the distance of the journey.

That’s why Mercury looks like it was filmed on video. Each Earth year, the planet can complete 4 translations. Its speed isn’t even twice ours though – it has a shorter orbit.

During the formation of the solar system, factors such as speed and distance determined which objects will be swallowed by the star or which will remain. “In short, the planets we see today are survivors,” O’Donoghue says in an interview with Insider.