The solar system is orbiting the centre of the Milky Way at a giddy 600,000 mph – 100,000 mph faster than was thought.

Astronomers have also discovered that the Milky Way’s mass is 50 per cent greater, equal to the neighbouring Andromeda galaxy, which means there is a greater chance of the Milky Way colliding with other galaxies.

To get the measurements, which were reported to the American Astronomical Society in California, the astronomers directed the Very Long Baseline Array radio telescope – ten antennae that stretch from Hawaii to the Caribbean – at some of the galaxy’s most prolific star-forming regions. Because these areas have enhanced levels of radio emission they acted as “bright landmarks”.

By observing them when the Earth was at opposite sides of its orbit around the Sun, the astronomers were able to measure the slight shift in position between the star-forming regions and other distant objects. Professor Karl Menten, of the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany, said: “These measurements use the traditional surveyor’s method of triangulation and do not depend on any assumptions based on other properties, such as brightness.”

He said that the data was revising astronomers’ understanding of the Milky Way. “Because we’re inside it, it’s difficult for us to determine the Milky Way’s structure. For other galaxies, we can simply look at them.”

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