 Earth orbits the Sun at an average distance of about 150 million kilometres ( 93 @,@ 000 @,@ 000 mi ) every 365 @.@ 2564 mean solar days , or one sidereal year . This gives an apparent movement of the Sun eastward with respect to the stars at a rate of about 1 ° / day , which is one apparent Sun or Moon diameter every 12 hours . Due to this motion , on average it takes 24 hours — a solar day — for Earth to complete a full rotation about its axis so that the Sun returns to the meridian . The orbital speed of Earth averages about 29 @.@ 8 km / s ( 107 @,@ 000 km / h ) , which is fast enough to travel a distance equal to Earth 's diameter , about 12 @,@ 742 km ( 7 @,@ 918 mi ) , in seven minutes , and the distance to the Moon , 384 @,@ 000 km ( 239 @,@ 000 mi ) , in about 3 @.@ 5 hours . 
