how do satellites orbit in space?
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Most satellites are launched into space on rockets. A satellite orbits Earth when its speed is balanced by the pull of Earth's gravity. Without this balance, the satellite would fly in a straight line off into space or fall back to Earth. ... It moves in the same direction and at the same rate Earth is spinning.
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Velocity, Acceleration and Force Vectors The motion of an orbiting satellite can be described by the same motion characteristics as any object in circular motion. The velocity of the satellite would be directed tangent to the circle at every point along its path.
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Most scientific satellites and many weather satellites are in a nearly circular, low Earth orbit. The satellite's inclination depends on what the satellite was launched to monitor.
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Comets orbit the Sun just like planets and asteroids do, except a comet usually has a very elongated orbit. As the comet gets closer to the Sun, some of the ice starts to melt and boil off, along with particles of dust. These particles and gases make a cloud around the nucleus, called a coma.
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The fundamental principle to be understood concerning satellites is that a satellite is a projectile. That is to say, a satellite is an object upon which the only force is gravity. Once launched into orbit, the only force governing the motion of a satellite is the force of gravity.
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… orbits: low Earth orbit (LEO), medium Earth orbit (MEO), and geostationary or geosynchronous orbit (GEO). LEO satellites are positioned at an altitude between 160 km and 1,600 km (100 and 1,000 miles) above Earth. MEO satellites operate from 10,000 to 20,000 km (6,300 to 12,500 miles) from Earth.
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Geostationary satellites don't actually orbit the equator, they are in low inclination orbits that cause the satelite to appear to do a figure 8 in the sky above the Earth. Orbiting near the equator allows the satellite to match the speed of the Earth's spin which is the same at the same latitudes.
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A geostationary satellite follows a geostationary orbit, that is a circular geosynchronous orbit directly above the Earth's equator with an orbital period equal to the Earth's rotation period. A polar satellite follows a polar orbit, that is an orbit passing above both Earth poles on each revolution.
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Do ALL satellites have to fly at the same speed so not to leave their orbit? ... No, satellites that orbit at different altitudes have different speeds. Satellites that are further away actually travel slower. The International Space Station has a Low Earth Orbit, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) above the earth's surface.
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To stay in orbit, an object must be traveling at a constant speed over Earth's surface. For the ISS, which orbits at a height of about 200 miles (322 kilometers), that's roughly 17,500 miles (28,163 kilometers) an hour. ... Without those propellant burns, the station would eventually drop from orbit.
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The two most common types of orbit are "geostationary" (jee-oh-STAY-shun-air-ee) and "polar." A geostationary satellite travels from west to east over the equator. It moves in the same direction and at the same rate Earth is spinning.
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So for a geostationary orbit in particular a satellite needs to have an altitude of about 22,000 miles and travel at about 2 miles per second. At that altitude and speed a satellite will complete a revolution in about 24 hours, which is what allows the satellite to maintain a geostationary orbit.
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As verbs the difference between orbit and circle is that orbit is to circle or revolve around another object while circle is to travel around along a curved path.
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Low earth orbit is just above the atmosphere-165 to about 300 miles. ... Geosynchronous orbits are at the other extreme at around 26,000 miles altitude, on 1/10th the way to the moon. Well above the atmosphere, objects in this orbit circle the globe only once every 24 hours, and so appear stationary above the surface.
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Cross Section of the Earth's Atmosphere You can consider most satellites to be in space, but in terms of the Earth's atmosphere, they occupy regions called the thermosphere and the exosphere. The layer through which a satellite orbits depends on the satellite's function and the kind of orbit it has.
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An orbit is essentially the motion of an object (be it a planet, a moon, a spacecraft) around a star, moon, or planet. Now a revolution is the movement of an object around an axis of rotation, or a centre, or another object. So the earth revolves around the sun, but the earth is also in orbit around the sun.
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The GOES system of satellites, which tracks weather and other things, is in a geosynchronous orbit, 36,000 kilometers (22,000 miles) above the earth. These satellites travel at about 11,000 kilometers per hour (7,000 miles per hour).