In which orbits do satellites revolve

The number of satellites orbiting the Earth is increasing exponentially. (Image credit: Shutterstock) Human-made satellites were once rare in low Earth orbit (LEO), with just a handful of them rotating around the planet at the dawn of the Space Age in the 1950s. But now, there are thousands of satellites swarming around Earth, with even more waiting to join them. So, to put an exact number on it, how many satellites are orbiting Earth, and how many might join them in the near future? And once all of these satellites are spaceborne, what types of problems might they cause? After the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world's first human-made satellite, in 1957, a slow but steady stream of satellites entered LEO, with between 10 and 60 launched annually until the 2010s, Supriya Chakrabarti, a professor of physics at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, wrote in an article published on Space.com, a Live Science sister site. Since then, that rate has skyrocketed, with more than 1,300 new satellites launched into LEO in 2020 and more than 1,400 satellites launched in 2021, Chakrabarti wrote. In total, there were around 7,500 satellites in LEO as of September 2021, according to the United Nations' Outer Space Objects Index. Crowded market The number of satellites in LEO, a region that spans up to 1,424 miles (2,000 kilometers) from Earth, will continue to increase at an exponential rate in the coming decades. That's because private companies are setting up their own megaconst...

[/caption] An artificial satellite is a marvel of technology and engineering. The only thing comparable to the feat in technological terms is the scientific know-how that goes into placing, and keeping, one in orbit around the Earth. Just consider what scientists need to understand in order to make this happen: first, there’s gravity, then a comprehensive knowledge of physics, and of course the nature of orbits themselves. So really, the question of How Satellites Stay in Orbit, is a multidisciplinary one that involves a great of technical and academic knowledge. First, to understand how a satellite orbits the Earth, it is important to understand what orbit entails. Johann Kepler was the first to accurately describe the mathematical shape of the orbits of planets. Whereas the orbits of planets about the Sun and the Moon about the Earth were thought to be perfectly circular, Kepler stumbled onto the concept of elliptical orbits. In order for an object to stay in orbit around the Earth, it must have enough speed to retrace its path. This is as true of a natural satellite as it is of an artificial one. From Kepler’s discovery, scientists were also able to infer that the closer a satellite is to an object, the stronger the force of attraction, hence it must travel faster in order to maintain orbit. Next comes an understanding of gravity itself. All objects possess a gravitational field, but it is only in the case of particularly large objects (i.e. planets) that this force is ...

Author • Michael J. I. Brown ARC Future Fellow and Senior Lecturer, Monash University Disclosure statement Michael J. I. Brown receives research funding from the Australian Research Council and Monash University, and has developed space-related titles for Monash University's MWorld educational app. Partners The Conversation UK receives funding from these organisations View the full list Take a look at the moon and it isn’t hard to imagine it as a planet. A 3,476 kilometres-in-diameter ball of rock, with basalt plains and mountain ranges, whose Despite its vast mass and gravitational pull, the moon does an excellent job of not falling to Earth. Why? Because the moon is in orbit. The concepts of Satellites in orbit are routinely used for Going sideways A common misconception about space travel and weightlessness is that they result from an absence of gravity. While the gravitational pull from the Earth decreases as one goes further into space, it never disappears entirely. Let go of a ball 100,000km above the Earth and it gradually falls. How do satellites and moons stop themselves from crashing down? By going sideways. Newton may When you fire a cannon horizontally on Earth, the cannon ball goes some distance as it falls to the ground. Fire the cannon ball faster out of the cannon and it will travel further around the Earth before crashing. What if you could fire the cannon ball at an unbelievable speed of 8 kilometres per second? The cannon ball would follow the curvature ...

The artificial satellites have generally three types of orbits: • Polar orbits • Equatorial orbits and • Geosynchronous orbits Polar Orbits The orbits passing over the poles of the earth are called polar orbits. These orbits are present at the height of about 1000 km from the earth. The satellites which are used for remote sensing and weather forecasting have polar orbits. The time taken by the satellites in a polar orbit to complete one revolution around the earth is usually less than 2 hours. So, these satellites can revolve several times around the earth in a day. Equatorial Orbits The orbits parallel to the equator of earth are called equatorial orbits. Equatorial orbits are suitable for geostationary satellites. Geostationary Satellites or Geosynchronous Satellites If the position of a revolving satellite does not change with time with respect to earth, then such satellite is called geostationary satellites or geosynchronous satellites. And the orbit in which a geostationary satellite revolves around the earth is called geostationary orbit or geosynchronous orbit. In fact, geostationary satellites revolve around the earth with the same speed with which the earth revolves around its own axis, i.e. 24 hours. That is why these satellites appear to be stationary in the sky. These satellites are used for communication.

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Space Briefing Book: Types of Orbits Written by: Space Foundation Editorial Team There are several types of Earth orbit, and each offers certain advantages and capabilities. Low Earth Orbit (LEO) LEO is commonly used for communication and remote sensing satellite systems, as well as the International Space Station (ISS) and Hubble Space Telescope. Medium Earth Orbit MEO is commonly used for navigation systems, including the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS). A depiction of LEO and MEO. Credit: The Space Foundation Geosynchronous Orbit (GSO) & Geostationary Orbit (GEO) Objects in GSO have an orbital speed that matches the Earth’s rotation, yielding a consistent position over a single longitude. GEO is a kind of GSO. It matches the planet’s rotation, but GEO objects only orbit Earth’s equator, and from the ground perspective, they appear in a fixed position in the sky. GSO and GEO are used for telecommunications and Earth observation. A depiction of GSO/GEO. Credit: The Space Foundation Polar Orbit Within 30 degrees of the Earth’s poles, the polar orbit is used for satellites providing reconnaissance, weather tracking, measuring atmospheric conditions, and long-term Earth observation. Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO) A type of polar orbit, SSO objects are synchronous with the sun, such that they pass over an Earth region at the same local time every day.

An orbit is a regular, repeating path that one object takes around another object or center of gravity. Orbiting objects, which are called satellites, include planets, moons, asteroids, and manmade devices. Objects orbit each other because of gravity. Gravity is the force that exists between any two objects with mass. Every object, from the smallest subatomic particle to the largest star, has mass. The more massive the object, the larger its gravitational pull. Gravitational pull is the amount of force one object exerts on another object. The sun is the most massive object in our solar system. All of the other objects in the solar system are subject to the gravitational pull of the sun. Many satellitesorbit on orbital planes. An orbital plane is a flat, disk-shaped space that connects the center of the object being orbited with the center of orbiting objects. Because all planets in our solar system share a similar orbital plane, planets dont run in to each other. All the planets in our solar system line up with each other on the same general orbital plane. However, sometimes orbital paths of other objects in the solar system intersect, and the objects can collide. Comet Tempel-Tuttle, for instance, passes through Earthsorbit. The debris from the tail of this comet passes through Earths atmosphere as meteors, or falling stars, at a specific time every year. The debris from the comet's orbit is called the Leonid meteor shower. The time it takes for an object to orbit around ...