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

Because that point is not stationary. The world turns. So the satellite is in an orbit, spinning around the earth, just like anything else in orbit. And yes, that means it’s constantly falling past the earth. The fact that the earth is turning is irrelevant to the orbit, the earth could start turning ten times as fast or stop turning completely. It doesn’t affect the orbit of the satellite.