What keeps a satellite in orbit
In short: A satellite keeps falling towards its planet while moving sideways fast enough to keep missing it.
1. A planet's gravity keeps pulling nearby objects back towards it. 2. An object in orbit around the planet is called a satellite. 3. Gravity keeps pulling the satellite back towards the planet. 4. The satellite also moves forward, sideways and fast; without gravity it would fly off in a straight line. 5. It keeps falling towards the planet but moves sideways fast enough to keep missing it, so its path curves. 6. That curved path is an orbit: a regular, repeating path around the planet.
Sources: NASA, “What Is an Orbit? (Grades 5-8)” (Public domain (US Government work)); Wikipedia, “Orbit (Wikipedia)” (CC BY-SA 4.0). Illustrative, not to scale.
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Sources
- Source: NASA: What Is an Orbit? (Grades 5-8) · Public domain (US Government work)
- Also: Orbit
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