What type of orbit does the earth have?

Answer 1

The Earth's orbit is very close to being a perfect circle, but not quite. It is somewhat elliptical, which means that the distance between the Earth and the Sun varies over the course of the year. Earth's orbit is almost circular - the distance to the Sun at perihelion is only about 3% less than its distance at aphelion. (perihelion and aphelion, refer to orbits around the Sun).

Johannes Kepler found that the orbits of the planets in our solar system are elliptical and that the sun is not located at the center of the orbits, but rather at one focus.Within a planetary system, planets, dwarf planets, asteroids, comets and space debris orbit the central star in elliptical orbits. Assumed the solar system does not move itself, the planets, asteroids, comets and space debris have elliptical orbits around the Sun.

Answer 2

A geosynchronous orbit is a geocentric orbit that has the same orbital period as the sidereal rotation period of the Earth. It has a semi-major axis of 42,164 km (26,200 miles). In the special case of the geostationary orbit, an observer on the ground would not perceive the satellite as moving and would see it as a fixed point in the sky. Such orbits are useful for telecommunications relays. In the more general case, when the orbit has some inclination and/or eccentricity, the satellite would appear to describe a more or less distorted figure-eight in the sky, and would rest above the same spots of the Earth's surface once per sidereal day.

Synchronous orbits exist around all moons, planets, stars and black holes —unless they rotate so slowly that the orbit would be outside their Hill sphere. Most inner moons of planets have synchronous rotation, so their synchronous orbits are, in practice, limited to their leading and trailing Lagrange points. Objects with chaotic rotations (such as Hyperion) are also problematic, as their synchronous orbits keep changing unpredictably.

If a geosynchronous orbit is circular and equatorial then it is also a geostationary orbit, and will maintain the same position relative to the Earth's surface. If one could see a satellite in geostationary orbit, it would appear to hover at the same point in the sky, i.e., not exhibit diurnal motion, while one would see the Sun, Moon, and stars traverse the heavens behind it.

A circular geosynchronous orbit in the plane of the Earth's equator has a radius of approximately 42,164 km (from the centre of the Earth) or approximately 35,786 km (22,236 statute miles) above mean sea level.

Answer 3

Earth orbit is an orbit around the planet Earth. The Moon, Earth's only natural satellite, is in Earth orbit. Artificial satellites are launched into Earth orbit, and spacecraft bound for other locations in the solar system usually begin their missions by first attaining Earth orbit, before altering course to another planet, moon, or heliocentric (solar) orbit.

Of special interest are Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) and Geosynchronous Orbit (GSO).

Low Earth orbit
Medium Earth Orbit
High Earth orbit
Elliptic orbit
Circular orbit
Geocentric orbit
Geosynchronous orbit
Geostationary orbit (a special case of Geosynchronous Orbit)
Geostationary transfer orbit (an elliptical orbit that touches both low Earth orbit and Geosynchronous Orbits)
Inclined orbit (a non-equatorial orbit)
Molniya orbit (a synchronous orbit that spends long periods over a non equatorial point)
Polar orbit (an orbit whose orbital track goes near to the poles)
Planetary orbit
Disposal orbit
Graveyard orbit
Synchronous orbit
Sun-synchronous orbit (an orbit that is always in sunlight)


(In general it is elliptical)

Answer 4

Elliptical. With aphelion of about 95 million miles in early July and perihelion of about 91 million miles in early January every year, There are dust clouds at its Lagrangian L5 and L4 points, orbiting with it, There are a number of artificial satellites at its L1 and L2 points but nothing at its L3 point.

NASA has operated a number of spacecraft at the Sun-Earth L1 and L2 points, including

Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) L1

Genesis L1

International Sun/Earth Explorer 3 (ISEE-3) L1

Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) L1

Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) L2

Answer 5

earth has an orbit which is eliptical in shape,
it revoles around the sun in its orbit

Answer 6

Elliptical, with the major axis nearly equal to the minor axis.

Answer 7

A little bit elliptical...
Almost circular...