Q: What is the shift in wavelength between light emitted by the bottom edge of the galaxy and light emitted by the top edge of the galaxy? The H-alpha line from the bottom is at 664.0 nm The H-alpha line from the top is at 665.0 nm That makes a shift of 1.0 nm from bottom to top. How fast is the galaxy rotating? The difference in radial velocity between the top and bottom of the galaxy is about 1 nm velocity = ---------- * (300,000 km/s) 664.5 nm = 450 km/s So we say that the galaxy is rotating at about 225 km/s: one side comes towards us at that speed, and the other moves away from us that speed.