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An orbiting satellite stays over a certain spot on the equator of (rotating) Earth. What is the altitude of the orbit (called ageosynchronous orbit)?

Short Answer

Expert verified

Altitude of the orbit will be 3.59×107″¾.

Step by step solution

01

Step 1: Given

Tsatellite=Tearth=86400²õ â¶Ä‰(asthestatelliteisGeostationarysatellite)

G=6.67×10−11N⋅m2kg2

Mearth=5.98×1024 k²µ

Rearth=6.37×106m

02

Determining the concept

As the satellite is revolving around earth, using Kepler’s 3rd law, first find the orbital radius of the satellite from the center of the earth.

To find the height of the orbit, subtract the radius of the earth from the orbital radius to get the required answer. According to Kepler’s third law, the squares of the orbital periods of the planets are directly proportional to the cubes of the semi major axes of their orbits.

Formula is as follow:

T2=4Ï€2GMa3

where, T is time, G is gravitational constant, M is mass and a is altitude of the orbit.

03

Determining the altitude of the orbit 

Let, the height of satellite from the center of Earth be r. Using Kepler’s 3rd law,

T2=4Ï€2GMa3

a3=T2×GM4π2

a=T2×GM4π23

a=(86400 s)2×6.67×10−11 N⋅m2/kg2×5.98×1024 kg4π23

a=4.225×107″¾

So, the height of the orbit from the surface of the earth will be,

h=r−Rearth.

h=(4.225×107 m)−(6.37×106 m)=3.59×107 m

Hence, thealtitude of the orbit will be3.59×107″¾.

Therefore, the altitude of the geostationary satellite can be found using the property of the geostationary satellite having the same time period or revolution as the time period of rotation of the earth.

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