how dose sattlites and sorts stay with the rotation of earth. with out floating off ?

Question

how do sattlites stay above us with out ending up over china as the world turns? im sure its a simple answer to this but i sure dont know lol

Answer 1

is gravity simple enough for you?

Answer 2

There is only one height where it is possible for a satalite to stay over the same location all of the time. This is called a geostationary Orbit and it is exactly 22,300 miles high, and directly over the earth's equator.

Those who have "Dish Antennas" for television have them pointing at one of the many satalites that is in a geostationary orbit, directly over the equator.

Just as gravity affects a ball thrown from Center Field to Home Plate to curve back to earth, a satalite is doing the same thing, but instead of the satalite actually coming back and hitting the earth, it is moving forward fast enough so that it falls but never hits the earth. A Satalite essentially keeps falling all of the time it is in orbit.

At the geostationary Orbit it is moving forward at the same relative speed that the earth is turning.

If you stick a tooth pick into a soft rubber ball and hold it so the tooth pick is straight up, and then turn the ball to the right until the tooth pick is sideways, you will see that the tip of the toothpick has dropped from it's maximum height. You can also see that the tip of the toothpick has move sideways significantly.

The dropping can be envisioned as the earth's gravity, and the sideways movement as the forward velocity of the satalite.

Answer 3

this is a fun concept!
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 center of the Earth) or approximately 35,786 km (22,236 statute miles) above mean sea level.

Answer 4

Sattelites orbit the Earth. They just spin around the Earth. Our Moon is a natural sattelite. So, it's similar to the way our Moon spins around our planet. Since,the sattelite is much less massive. It orbits much closer to Earth. The Earths gravity attracts the sattelite to it. The sattelites gravity also attracts the Earth to it. But, the more massive the object. The more influencial it's gravity is. The sattelite is gravitating towards Earth steadily faster as it gets closer. As it gets closer it accellarates it's speed in it's orbital trajectory.
The sattelite doesn't stop over China.Because, there's nothing in it's way that's significantly massive enough to stop it. Unless acted upon by an outside force. An object will continue to go in it's path of motion. This is a modified version of Newton's first law of motion.

Answer 5

The farther out the orbit is, the slower the satellite moves to keep that orbit. If the satellite is at just the right height, the orbit is moving the same speed as the earth under it. All of the geostationary satellites are at an altitude of 35,786 km.

Answer 6

They rotate at the same speed as the rotation of the earth. Well a little faster since they are further from the center of rotation, but only a very little bit.

But some satellites do go around the earth faster or slower. The shuttle actually goes around the earth every 90 minutes.

Answer 7

It's called geosynchronous orbit. The satellite is set at an altitude which causes its period of revolution to be equal to the period of rotation of the earth. That way, the satellite remains in the same place at all times in relation to the earth's surface. Likewise, if a satellite needs to circle the earth faster than a day, it is placed in LEO, Low Earth Orbit. Whereas if a slow revolution is desired, it is placed above geosynchronous orbit creating a longer path.

Answer 8

Once a thing has been launched with escape velocity(the velocity at which an object escapes from gravitational pull of planet) becomes free until some other force is applied to move it.That force is applied by rocket engines which make them move with the velociy at which it remains at fixed point with respect to earth.

Answer 9

Between the speed of the object, the gravitation pull and centrifical force, it maintains an orbit, but the all eventually decay and fall into the atmosphere

Answer 10

They travel at the same speed as the Earth is turning. Like 2 cars driving beside each other at the same speed on the highway.

Answer 11

the earth's gravity actually keeps satellites in orbit, like a magnet pulling a paper clip across a table