The earth rotates on its axis in about 24 hours, give or take a few minutes

The Earth rotates on its axis each day

The Earth goes through a number of different positions which astronomers have measured
 
 
The Earth is constantly in motion relative to everything around it and rotates on its axis once every day and orbits Sol once per year. The Earth's axis is defined as an imaginary line connecting the North and South poles and passing through the center of the planet. The Earth rotates west to east, viewers above the North Pole will see the Earth move counterclockwise from their view, and this is why to star gazers the Sun and stars appear to rise in the east and set in the west every day.

Looking upward at the night sky you don't actually feel the relative motion of the Earth beneath you, despite this you're rotating at about 1000 km/hr, depending on where you're situated on the Earth. Standing on the exact center of the North Pole, your relative speed of rotation is much less than if you were standing on the equator, and the closer you're to the equator, the faster the Earth beneath you is moving. Standing on the equator the Earth beneath you is rotating at about 1,670 km/hr, move half-way to the North or South Pole, and the speed of rotation of the Earth decreases significantly to about 1,275 km/hr, and once you are standing on the exact North or South Pole the Earth isn't rotating.

The rotation of the Earth on its axis has consequences for the planet and all life existing on the spaceshipearth1. The daily rotation of the Earth on its axis creates the night and day cycle we all rely on, and this motion combined with the spaceshipearth's orbit around Sol produces the seasonal cycles we all experience during life on Earth. We'll talk about the Earth's daily cycle and what this means for life on Earth in future articles.