I imagine that sometimes things that are put into orbit and intended to stay there sometimes overshoot their mark and the earth just flies by leaving whatever it was in deep space.
Or maybe that never happens?
In: Technology
Satellites do eventually fall out of orbit. Escape velocity is how fast an object must travel in order to escape the gravitational pull of a particular object. The earth’s escape velocity is about 25,000 miles per hour, so something must travel at this speed to escape the gravitational pull of the earth.
Satellites that orbit the earth are traveling at nowhere close to the earth’s escape velocity. This is why they stay in orbit. The earth’s gravitational pull is stronger than the velocity of the satellite, so the satellite will never escape the pull of the earth.
As the satellite moves away from the earth, it slowly slows down. This is because the earth’s gravitational pull is weaker the further you get from it. The satellite will eventually slow down to the point where the gravitational pull of the earth is stronger than the velocity of the satellite.
At this point, the satellite will fall back into the earth’s atmosphere and burn up.
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