That’s crazy. TIL about geostationary satellites. I didn’t think a satellite could ‘stay still’ in space above an area and have wrongly told people it’s not possible. I have some comment edits to make.
Wait till you hear about legrange points. These are points where 2 massive object (like the sun and earth) create a sort of pocket where a satellite can orbit “nothing”. I have massively simplyfied it, off course.
Heard of them (UFOs sub, lots of heavy reading, skimming the physics parts) but never knew what they were. That’s a great understandable explanation, and fascinating, thanks.
Well, the satellite isn’t standing still in space. It’s orbing Earth. It just happens to oribt Earth at the exact same speed and direction as the earth is orbiting so it just looks like it’s standing still.
Not sure why I can’t see your reply. I could have worded that better. I didn’t think a satellite could stay above a fixed location on Earth, but now it makes sense - it just rotates at the same speed and orbit of Earth.
That’s crazy. TIL about geostationary satellites. I didn’t think a satellite could ‘stay still’ in space above an area and have wrongly told people it’s not possible. I have some comment edits to make.
Wait till you hear about legrange points. These are points where 2 massive object (like the sun and earth) create a sort of pocket where a satellite can orbit “nothing”. I have massively simplyfied it, off course.
Heard of them (UFOs sub, lots of heavy reading, skimming the physics parts) but never knew what they were. That’s a great understandable explanation, and fascinating, thanks.
The JWST actually sits at a Lagrange Point (L2)
There is a good write up including video and animations to explain what where and why https://webb.nasa.gov/content/about/orbit.html
Well, the satellite isn’t standing still in space. It’s orbing Earth. It just happens to oribt Earth at the exact same speed and direction as the earth is orbiting so it just looks like it’s standing still.
Not sure why I can’t see your reply. I could have worded that better. I didn’t think a satellite could stay above a fixed location on Earth, but now it makes sense - it just rotates at the same speed and orbit of Earth.
Test