A geostationary satellite must orbit around the equator with a period of 24 hours?

Question

Is it possible for a geostationary satellite to orbit around some other latitude but with a period that is not 24 hours!!!Maybe remaining stationary over the Tropic of Cancer.

Answer 1

No, because then it would have to orbit the earth in a pattern ressembling a sine wave. There ARE satellites all over the globe, but they are not all stationary over one particular spot.

Answer 2

As has been stated twice here, any orbit must have its center at the center of mass of the object being orbited. They call latitude lines 'parallels' because they're parallel to each other. Only the equator shares a center with the center of the Earth. Therefore, all geostationary orbits must be above the equator.

Now, you could be orbiting the earth over a different latitude and be geostationary - it's possible, but only if you constantly expend energy to maintain your altitude. Although in this case, one might argue that the word 'orbit' is not entirely accurate. In any case, we're not going to be ferrying rocket fuel up to some satellite forever just to keep it over a spot other than one on the equator, when we can see a geosynchronous satellite from any latitude already. It's just not "straight up" from anywhere but Equador, central Africa, etc.

Answer 3

It is called a geosynchronous orbit and there are a lot of satellites positioned in geosynchronous orbits. There is a special case where the satellite is directly above the equator and goes around the earth at the same speed as the earth rotates. This is called a geostationary orbit. The satellite seems stationary to somebody looking at it from earth. by the way, most satellites are launched going with the rotation of the earth so they can use the speed of the earths rotation as a boost into orbit.

Answer 4

A satellite that orbits at that altitude but not at an equatorial inclination of 0 is said to be geosynchronous (instead of geostationary). It won't remain stationary over a single point on the Earth, but instead will move over the surface in a figure 8 pattern once per day, always crossing over the same point on the equator, with the top and bottom of the 8 being at a lattitude north and south of the equator equal to the orbit's equatorial inclination.

There are a number of satellites up there that are in this kind of configuration. It allows them to remain near the same longitude of the Earth at all times while changing the lattitude in a regular way, providing slightly varying perspectives of the Earth.

Answer 5

No, suppose the orbit is circular, then the earth must be at the center. You could have a satellite that passes overhead of the Tropic of Cancer, but it would have to be a tilted circle so that the center is still at the earth's center. The only line of latitude that a satellite can be at during an entire orbit is the equator.

Answer 6

Everything orbits around the CENTRE of another body, because the gravitational force from a mass acts towards the centre. It is therefore not physically possible to orbit over a line of latitude because that is not orbiting the centre of the Earth.

However, neither is it necessary. All geostationary satellites are around 25,000 miles altitude around the equator, and from that distance (assuming the Earth was a smooth sphere) they can be seen from the entire half of the globe facing them.

Answer 7

Hi. All orbits are ellipses through which the Earth turns. All geosynchronous satellites are over the equator and their orbits match the rotation period of Earth. Any closer and they would not match the speed, and different latitude ant they would seem to move up and down relative to the equator.

Answer 8

No, that is not possible. Except for the equator, lines of latitude are not great circles and all orbits must be great circles.

Answer 9

No, at an altitude of 25,000 miles it moves with the Earth in sync with the Earth's rotation.

Answer 10

geostationary is the satellite is put in one place and stays there and rotates with the earth not orbiting around the earth