By Wayne Boyd

In general, the closer a planet is to its star, in our case our star is called “The Sun”, then the faster it moves. Mercury, being the closest planet to our sun star moves the fastest, and Neptune, being the most distant planet from our star moves the slowest.

Mercury moves at about 107,082 miles per hour around the sun.

Venus, the next planet out from the sun, moves about 78,875 miles per hour.

Earth, the third planet from the sun, moves about 66,660 miles per hour.

So you see, the farther out you go from the sun, the slower the orbital speed.

The most distant planet, Neptune, is only traveling about 12,146 miles per hour around the sun. The image above also shows dwarf-planet Pluto, moving even slower than Neptune.

Paradoxically, planets move slower the farther they are from the sun and simultaneously their orbital circumference increases. This gives a double-whammy in terms of how long it takes planets to complete an orbit.