why does the iss move through the sky really quickly yet planets further out barely seem to move?
In: Physics
A Minute of Angle (MOA) is an angular measurement. A MOA is 1/60th of a degree. 1 MOA spreads about 1″ per 100 yards. ( actually 1.047″) 1 MOA is a different size at different distances, 8″ at 800 yards is still just 1 MOA.
So 1 MOA at the ISS is around 7 miles. 1 MOA of say Jupiter is 10.14 million miles. So to you they appear to travel the same distance but Jupiter actually travels 1.45 million times the distance. Yet Jupiter doesn’t even travel at twice the speed of the ISS so that 1 MOA takes the ISS 1.47 seconds. The same MOA if Jupiter takes about 346 hours but both appear to travel the same distance to an observer 9n earth.
Someone who knows more will probably correct my math. I did pretty rough math just as an example.
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