Every moment of every day, our planet is in motion. Beyond its journey around the sun, Earth is constantly spinning on its own axis, an imaginary line that runs straight through the planet from the North Pole to the South Pole. This spinning motion is called rotation.

The direction of this spin is consistent: eastward. If you were to look down on the North Pole from space, you would see the planet rotating counter-clockwise. This movement is what causes the sun to appear to rise in the east and set in the west from our perspective on the surface.

The rate of this rotation is also remarkably steady. Earth completes one full spin in approximately 24 hours. While we don't feel this motion, the surface at the equator is moving at over 1,600 kilometers per hour (about 1,000 miles per hour). This speed decreases as you move toward the poles, where the motion is much slower.

This basic rotation—a steady, counter-clockwise spin on a tilted axis completed in about 24 hours—is one of the most fundamental characteristics of our planet.