I have some basic knowledge in physics (at least I think so) and know why objects on the orbit don’t fall down to Earth.My question is how the objects (meteor debris etc) got there.Aren’t they supposed to have the exact speed and trajectory? Did all of them manage to fit in these conditions?
Sorry for possible mistakes, English isn’t my first language
In: Physics
While a singular orbit needs a exact speed/trajectories, if you change them, they will still be in orbit, just a slightly changed one.
When it comes to meteors, they are not in orbit around the earth (as they would not hit earth then), usually they come from outside the earth gravities influence and happen to have a crash course with earth.
The stuff thats actually in earths orbit is mostly sattelites and the trash that was produced when placing them there. There are no significant asteroids/meteors that directly orbit earth closely, apart from the moon.
There are a couple asteroids who have a loose gravitational bound with earth which you could call a large orbit, these are likely just leftovers when the solar system was still a large disk of asteroids.
Lastly one way how asteroids could get into orbit is if two asteroid near earth collide and create a asteroid with just the right velocity to orbit earth.
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