What does a satellite looks like during the day and how fast does it travel?

Question

to a human eye would it cross the sky from a visible range going north to south in ... let's say ...7 seconds?
I'd tried searching for a picture of what it looks like from earth during the day to a naked human eye

Answer 1

You cannot see an artificial satellite (i.e. man-made satellite) in day-light (as apposed to the moon which is a natural satellite). If the satellite is in a geo-synchronize orbit (i.e. hovering over the same spot on the ground) it is traveling pretty fast (it has to complete a full circle of a radius the size of the earth's radius + the altitude of the satellite in 24 hours), but it would appear stationary to us.
Sometimes at night you might notice a satellite as a spot the size of a small star moving in the sky. When you see this it means that the satellite is moving really fast (roughly 1000 kmph).

Answer 2

Well, some of the answers about speed so far are wrong.

> "...Its speed is more then 11.2 Km/sec..."

No, that is way too fast. If a satellite moves at 11.2 km/sec or faster, it will BREAK AWAY from orbit. It will move continually farther from the earth rather than circling around it.

> "...1000 kmph)..."

Way too slow! Only satellites which are VERY far from the earth (about 100,000 miles up) will move that slow--and those are too far away to see.

Here are the REAL answers (from a Physics graduate and long-time satellite watcher).

> What does a satellite looks like during the day...?

It is very difficult to see a satellite during the day because of the brightness of the sky. This is the same reason you can't see stars during the day. However, in rare cases you can see the very brightest satellites in the daytime. I have done this on several occasions. Your best chance for daylight viewing is to look for an "Iridium" satellite. They get very bright for only about 2 or 3 seconds, as the sun flashes off one of their antenna panels. To find predictions for daylight viewing of Iridium satellites in your city, do this:

1. Go here: http://www.heavens-above.com/main.aspx
2. (Important!) Enter your city (Configuration -> Current Observing Site -> from database)
3. Click on the link, "Daytime flares for 7 days"

At _nighttime_, it's much easier to see satellites. The easiest one is the ISS (International Space Station), because it's very big and relatively close (only 200 miles off the ground). The heavens-above website (see link above) can also tell you when the ISS will be visible from your city.

The speed of the ISS (and all satellites in "low" earth orbit) is about 17,500 mph. It generally takes about 5 minutes to cross from one horizon to the other. It will look like a bright, moving star. Its motion _looks_ very much like the speed of an airplane, as seen from down here; in fact, there are probably many people who have seen the ISS and simply assumed it was an airplane. However, airplanes have blinking lights and the ISS does not. :-)

Answer 3

If aliens didn't exist, how would you explain: The Roswell Incident. The recent UFO over China's airport incident. The Betty and Barney Hill Abduction. The Government's sudden panic to hide any and all UFO-related events. Crop Circles. UFO sightings Ancient drawings of sliver discs, flying people, and people with large eyes and heads. Human skulls with significantly large craniums obviously mimicking the so-called "greys" aliens. Ancient structures we can barely build only with machines. Suspicious farm animal mutilations with no blood, perfectly cut areas of the animals (probably with a laser) and stolen organs in which whatever is left (skin) was heated. The mysterious 72 second lasting frequency from a NASA space probe Well I don't know about you, but I'd bet you that aliens exist. Aliens probably barely visit us is because we're too primitive for them. When the day comes we make contact, I hope we don't make a dumb decision of shooting them first so we don't start an intergalactic war with a race we can't even reach

Answer 4

A satellite looks like a star during the day.Its speed is more then 11.2 Km/sec

Answer 5

it looks exactly like a star, but a little brighter... it travels pretty fast... like from the northern horizon to the southern horizon in a few minutes or more... think of a ant running accross the your ceiling window... it actually travels really fast...but just the fact that it is so high up makes them look slower..... they travel at 27400 km/h...pretty darn fast...or u could say they travel around the world in 90 minutes