Word: earthness
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Astronomers have long known pre cisely how fast the earth moves as it cir cles around its own star, the sun (66,500 m.p.h.), and how fast the solar system revolves around the core of its own galaxy, the Milky Way (481,000 m.p.h...
They have even been able to compute the astounding speed with which the Milky Way moves around the center of a supercluster of 2,500 neighboring galaxies (1,350,000 m.p.h.). Yet the earth and the Milky Way are also in motion with respect to the vast reaches of the universe itself...
While scientists have often speculated about this universal speed, they have never been able to record or measure it. For one thing, they lacked a suitable frame of reference in which they could clock the earth's speed through the universe as a whole. Now, a young Stanford University astronomer has made such a computation by using a phenomenon so distant in origin that it can be considered at the very outer limits of the cosmos. He calculates that along with the rest of the Milky Way galaxy, the earth is hurtling through space at 360,000 m.p.h...
...universe more than 10 billion years ago. Just as a cyclist feels more of a breeze when he rides with the wind in his face rather than at his back, the lingering radiation from the so-called "big bang" would appear slightly stronger to an observer on earth when the planet is moving toward the radio waves. Conklin figured that if he could somehow determine the apparent excess of radiation caused by the earth's own motion, he could, in fact, then measure the motion itself...
...peak near Yosemite National Park, and pointed them in opposite directions. For 23 days, the antennas swept different quadrants of the skies; periodically they were reversed to reduce the risk of built-in electronic error. By comparing the slight variations in readings, Conklin was able to calculate the earth's velocity toward the distant sea of radiation...