[OokieWonderslug (OP)]

What do yall reckon about the idea that mass/gravitational energy is solely a byprouduct of velocity? Us and everything around us is going 500,000 miles per hour. The gravity we know comes from that velocity.  How right do ya figure that is?

[Kryptid]

Us and everything around us is going 500,000 miles per hour.

Relative to what?

How right do ya figure that is?

Not right at all. Right now, the Earth is at rest in my reference frame. It is still pulling on me with its gravity.

[Halc]

What do yall reckon about the idea that mass/gravitational energy is solely a byprouduct of velocity?

Velocity isn't a property of anything, and has nothing to do with an objects gravitational field or energy.  An object's gravitational field is a function of its mass, not its velocity, else two objects of equal velocity but vastly different mass would exert the same gravity.

Per the scientific definition, gravitation (potential) energy (like velocity) is a relation between two objects, not a property of one object.
But an object does have (negative) gravitational binding energy due to its own gravity well, which is the energy required to bring all the mass of that object to its zero state, which is being spread evenly in space at the same potential as that object's orbit.  It is a function of an object's mass and density, but again not its velocity.
A ballpark figure is that Earth has -2.4x10³² joules of binding energy (a figure which seems low to me), which is equivalently the amount of heat that would be generated if all the mass of Earth fell back into a planet from an indefinite height.  This does not include the vastly higher energy needed to get it out of the gravity well of other objects like the sun and galaxy and such.

[Hayseed]

May I ask, where did you get that velocity figure from?   IF we could figure out our velocity, we MIGHT be able to get a REAL base length for a parallax measurement to a close star.

We have never had that length.

[Halc]

Relative to what?

May I ask, where did you get that velocity figure from? 

The figure (500,000 mph) is roughly the orbital speed of our solar system around the galaxy, so relative to the galaxy I'm guessing.  That would make out galaxy stationary (the only stationary one out of how many?  What are the odds?) and thus massless if mass/gravitational energy is solely a byprouduct of velocity.  If it were massless, the solar system would not be pulled into an orbital path about it.