Somehow I always thought the the electron(s) had a constantly changing angle of orbit and were so fast (C ?) that they essentially created a sphere around the nucleus.
It's been a long time, and I haven't really had the occasion to study and remember such things. In my one college science class (meteorology) the professor (a retired Navy forecaster ) demonstrated how the H2O molecule had the two H atoms connected at something like 60 degrees forming a "mickey mouse" pattern, and how this caused hexagon ice/snow crystals.
There are orbitals that form spherical shells, but they are only one subset of the energy states for an atom.
This is just for Hydrogen.
http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/HydrogenOrbitals/http://designblog.rietveldacademie.nl/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/POS0007-A2-orbitron-20101.jpg Here are a few more states.
Other heavier elements with more electrons corresponding to their higher proton count in the nucleus gets hideously complex. Plus, due to the quantum wave/particle duality, these are also wave functions. Not just a little "dot" of an electron whizzing around like a planet in some tiny solar system analogy...
Actual electron velocities are a bit more complicated. Some representations of velocity are more of an energy figure sometimes. Not exactly a speed as we think of it on the macro scale.
Although electrons make quantum jumps, they kinda/sorta "teleport" which is instantaneous almost, or measured in Planck-time, OTOH, since electrons have mass, they can never actually move at
c, since anything with mass gains additional rest-mass as it approaches
c in an exponential curve, and to actually reach
c for anything with even a shred of mass would take infinite energy/more than is available in the whole universe etc.
http://stedjee1.infinology.net/Velocity_Orbit_Electron/Velocity%20of%20Orbiting%20Electron.htm