eli5: I’ve heard orbit described as continuously falling past or missing the Earth, how then do objects in geosynchronous orbit above a single point not fall out of the sky?

Question

eli5: I’ve heard orbit described as continuously falling past or missing the Earth, how then do objects in geosynchronous orbit above a single point not fall out of the sky?

In: 2204

Answer 1

Separate the two movements and it makes it easier to visualize.

If you put a yardstick on a basketball that would represent the forward motion of a satellite. You can see how eventual that forward motion would mean it would shoot off somewhere into space never to be seen again. So there has to be a downward motion around to wrap around the basketball. For example two units forwards and one unit down.

In a satellite it’s the downward is what we call falling. In a geosynchronous orbit the motion forward and the motion down is the same. So on earth it appears to be in the same spot because the earth is also rotating