Much faster than that, even. The surface of the planet moves at up to ~1000mph relative to the earth’s center of mass, but once you factor in the orbit around the sun, the orbit around the galaxy, and even the galaxy’s motion, you’re looking at miles per second instead of mph.
One article I found when googling this says that measuring relative to the cosmic microwave background, we are moving at 390 km/s.
Are they also inertialess? Being immune to gravity won’t make them just stop; stop, relative to what?
So, they continue in a straight line, while their body moves in rotation with the Earth’s surface × orbit around the sun × orbit around Sagittarius A × whatever movement the Milky Way is making based on the local cluster… I wonder how much angular movement the supercluster is making.
I think the inertia question would affect the velocity of the ghost relative to the rest of the planet. But unless the ghost has the necessary movement powers to maintain their position, I have to think the earth’s path versus the ghost’s straight line through space would diverge pretty quickly.
Interesting to think about, especially in light of the other reply discussing the hypothetical of ghosts being able to choose & switch frames of reference.
Honestly though, since just about everything is affected by the way gravity bends spacetime, including light, I bet they’d stay with the earth. Maybe just have to hover above the surface in order to not fall down to the core of the planet.
CaptainMcMonkey@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Relative to what, though? A lot of lore has ghost tied to locations on earth, which are typically fixed places. I guess if there was some kind of astology ghost tied to certain stars it might rocket off in some unexpected way.
Maybe that could be a tool in some exorcist’s bag. Convince a ghost it’s tied to some stars, and trick it into changing its frame of reference.
Zink@programming.dev 8 months ago
I think this might be the most fun answer, that the ghost decides its own frame of reference and can be tricked to choosing the wrong thing then just fly off into space at incredible speed.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Ghosts are really bad werewolves confirmed