Orbit 

What is an orbit simple definition?

An orbit is the path that an object takes in space when it goes
around a star, a planet, or a moon. It can also be used as a verb.
For instance: “The earth orbits around the Sun.” The word
'revolves' has the same meaning, but 'rotates' is the spin of the
object.

What are examples of orbit?

The definition of an orbit is a circular shape, the rotation of one
full circle or a range of experience. The path the earth takes
around the sun is an example of the earth's orbit. The 365 days it
takes the earth to get around the sun is an example of the time it
takes for a complete orbit or full circle around.

What causes orbit?

What causes an orbit to happen? Orbits are the result of a
perfect balance between the forward motion of a body in space,
such as a planet or moon, and the pull of gravity on it from
another body in space, such as a large planet or star

What does out of orbit mean?

out of orbit with/of/in terms of, etc comfortable and safe life and
pushed into the hollow/limbo/vacuum you have to get out of.
What are the three types of orbits?
(NASA Photograph S126-E-014918.) There are essentially three
types of Earth orbits: high Earth orbit, medium Earth orbit, and
low Earth orbit. Many weather and some communications
satellites tend to have a high Earth orbit, farthest away from the
surface

How does an orbit work?

Orbits are the result of a perfect balance between the forward
motion of a body in space, such as a planet or moon, and the pull
of gravity on it from another body in space, such as a large planet
or star. ... These forces of inertia and gravity have to be perfectly
balanced for an orbit to happen

How do you stay in orbit?

So really, a satellites ability to maintain its orbit comes down to a
balance between two factors: its velocity (or the speed at which it
would travel in a straight line), and the gravitational pull between
the satellite and the planet it orbits. The higher the orbit, the less
velocity is required.

Why is the orbit important?

Without gravity, an Earth-orbiting satellite would go off into
space along a straight line. ... Escape velocity depends on the
mass of the planet. Each planet has a different escape velocity.
The object's distance from the planet's center is also important.
How does a satellite stay in orbit?
Satellites are able to orbit around the planet because they are
locked into speeds that are fast enough to defeat the downward
pull of gravity. ... A satellite maintains its orbitby balancing two
factors: its velocity (the speed it takes to travel in a straight line)
and the gravitational pull that Earth has on it

How does the orbit work?

Orbits are the result of a perfect balance between the forward
motion of a body in space, such as a planet or moon, and the pull
of gravity on it from another body in space, such as a large planet
or star. ... These forces of inertia and gravity have to be perfectly
balanced for an orbit to happen.

What is the opposite of orbit?

perigee. The perigee is the point in the orbit of an object circling
the Earth when that object is closest to the Earth. ...
The opposite of perigee is apogee. A perigee is measured from
the center of the earth to the center of the orbiting object.

What does orbit mean in science?

An orbit is a regular, repeating path that one object in space takes
around another one. An object in an orbit is called a satellite. A
satellite can be natural, like Earth or the moon. Many planets have
moons that orbit them.Ju
Why are orbits not circular?
One of the consequences of elliptical orbits is that planets orbit
not about the center of the ellipse, but about a point off-center
known as the focus. This offset is far more noticeable than a
slightly elliptical shape. So early astronomers proposed circular
orbits known as deferents that were shifted off center.
In physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved trajectory of
an object,[1] such as the trajectory of a planet around a star or
a natural satellite around a planet. Normally, orbit refers to a
regularly repeating trajectory, although it may also refer to a non-
repeating trajectory. To a close approximation, planets and
satellites follow elliptic orbits, with the center of mass being
orbited at a focal point of the ellipse,[2] as described by Kepler's
laws of planetary motion.
For most situations, orbital motion is adequately approximated
by Newtonian mechanics, which explains gravity as a force
obeying an inverse-square law.[3]However, Albert
Einstein's general theory of relativity, which accounts for gravity
as due to curvature of spacetime, with orbits following geodesics,
provides a more accurate calculation and understanding of the
exact mechanics of orbital motion.
Historically, the apparent motions of the planets were described
by European and Arabic philosophers using the idea of celestial
spheres. This model posited the existence of perfect moving
spheres or rings to which the stars and planets were attached. It
assumed the heavens were fixed apart from the motion of the
spheres, and was developed without any understanding of gravity.
After the planets' motions were more accurately measured,
theoretical mechanisms such as deferent and epicycles were
added. Although the model was capable of reasonably accurately
predicting the planets' positions in the sky, more and more
epicycles were required as the measurements became more
accurate, hence the model became increasingly unwieldy.
Originally geocentric, it was modified by Copernicus to place the
Sun at the centre to help simplify the model. The model was
further challenged during the 16th century, as comets were
observed traversing the spheres.[4][5]
The basis for the modern understanding of orbits was first
formulated by Johannes Kepler whose results are summarised in
his three laws of planetary motion. First, he found that the orbits
of the planets in our Solar System are elliptical, not circular (or
epicyclic), as had previously been believed, and that the Sun is
not located at the center of the orbits, but rather at one focus.[6]
Second, he found that the orbital speed of each planet is not
constant, as had previously been thought, but rather that the speed
depends on the planet's distance from the Sun. Third, Kepler
found a universal relationship between the orbital properties of all
the planets orbiting the Sun. For the planets, the cubes of their
distances from the Sun are proportional to the squares of their
orbital periods. Jupiter and Venus, for example, are respectively
about 5.2 and 0.723 AU distant from the Sun, their orbital periods
respectively about 11.86 and 0.615 years. The proportionality is
seen by the fact that the ratio for Jupiter, 5.23/11.862, is practically
equal to that for Venus, 0.7233/0.6152, in accord with the
relationship. Idealised orbits meeting these rules are known as
Kepler orbits.
 The lines traced out by orbits dominated by the gravity of a
central source are conic sections: the shapes of the curves of
intersection between a plane and a cone. Parabolic (1) and
hyperbolic (3) orbits are escape orbits, whereas elliptical and
circular orbits (2) are captive.

This image shows the four trajectory categories with the

gravitational potential well of the central mass's field of potential
energy shown in black and the height of the kinetic energy of the
moving body shown in red extending above that, correlating to
changes in speed as distance changes according to Kepler's laws.
Isaac Newton demonstrated that Kepler's laws were derivable
from his theory of gravitation and that, in general, the orbits of
bodies subject to gravity were conic sections (this assumes that
the force of gravity propagates instantaneously). Newton showed
that, for a pair of bodies, the orbits' sizes are in inverse proportion
to their masses, and that those bodies orbit their common center
of mass. Where one body is much more massive than the other (as
is the case of an artificial satellite orbiting a planet), it is a
convenient approximation to take the center of mass as coinciding
with the center of the more massive body.
Advances in Newtonian mechanics were then used to explore
variations from the simple assumptions behind Kepler orbits, such
as the perturbations due to other bodies, or the impact of
spheroidal rather than spherical bodies. Lagrange (1736–1813)
developed a new approach to Newtonian mechanics emphasizing
energy more than force, and made progress on the three body
problem, discovering the Lagrangian points. In a dramatic
vindication of classical mechanics, in 1846 Urbain Le Verrier was
able to predict the position of Neptune based on unexplained
perturbations in the orbit of Uranus.

Within a planetary system, planets, dwarf planets, asteroids and

other minor planets, comets, and space debris orbit the
system's barycenter in elliptical orbits. A comet in
a parabolic or hyperbolic orbit about a barycenter is not
gravitationally bound to the star and therefore is not considered
part of the star's planetary system. Bodies which are
gravitationally bound to one of the planets in a planetary system,
either natural or artificial satellites, follow orbits about a
barycenter near or within that planet.
Owing to mutual gravitational perturbations, the eccentricities of
the planetary orbits vary over time. Mercury, the smallest planet
in the Solar System, has the most eccentric orbit. At the
present epoch, Mars has the next largest eccentricity while the
smallest orbital eccentricities are seen with Venus and Neptune.
As two objects orbit each other, the periapsis is that point at
which the two objects are closest to each other and the apoapsis is
that point at which they are the farthest. (More specific terms are
used for specific bodies. For example, perigee and apogee are the
lowest and highest parts of an orbit around Earth,
while perihelion and aphelion are the closest and farthest points
of an orbit around the Sun.)
In the case of planets orbiting a star, the mass of the star and all
its satellites are calculated to be at a single point called the
barycenter. The paths of all the star's satellites are elliptical orbits
about that barycenter. Each satellite in that system will have its
own elliptical orbit with the barycenter at one focal point of that
ellipse. At any point along its orbit, any satellite will have a
certain value of kinetic and potential energy with respect to the
barycenter, and that energy is a constant value at every point
along its orbit. As a result, as a planet approaches periapsis, the
planet will increase in speed as its potential energy decreases; as a
planet approaches apoapsis, its velocity will decrease as its
potential energy increases.